Acute Leukaemia in Adults: Morphological Profile of 101 Patients

Abstract

A total of 101 consecutive patients of acute Ieukaemia were diagnosed in adults (age range 16-74), during a period of 6’/z years. These patients included 74 males (733%), and 27 females (26.7%) with male/female ratio of 2.74:1. AME was the most frequent type accounting for 73 patients (72.3%), followed by ALL, 25 patients (24.8%) and 3 patients (2.9%) were diagnosed as bilineal leukaemia on morphological and cytochemical grounds. Overall AML/ALL ratio was 2.9:1. Amongst AML, M2 was the most frequent subtype accounting for 67.1%, followed by M4, Ml, M3, MS, MO and M6. Amongst ALL, L2 was the most frequent subtype accounting for 64% followed by Li and L3. Total cases of acute leukaemia and AML showed a bimodal age related distribution. ALL showed highest incidence in younger adults (age 16-25 years), and a sharp progressive decline in incidence thereafter.