Pattern of haematological diseases diagnosed by bone marrow examination in Yemen: a developing country experience

Abstract

There is lack of information about the relative prevalence of haematological disorders in Yemen and other Middle East countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of haematological diseases diagnosed by bone marrow examination in Yemen considering the limited diagnostic facilities. At the referral haematology centre in Yemen, between November 1999 and November 2005, 785 patients >14 years old were evaluated by bone marrow examination. Relevant investigations were performed when needed. A total of 627 patients had haematological disorders other than lymphoma, and their data were analysed. There were 273 females and 354 males. A total of 159 patients had Acute myeloid leukaemia, 75 had acute lymphocytic leukaemia, 87 had chronic myeloid leukaemia, 36 chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, eight had multiple myeloma, 13 myelodysplastic syndromes, seven myelofibrosis, seven polycythaemia vera, three primary thrombocythaemia, two hairy cell leukaemia, two metastases, 36 aplastic anaemia, 29 immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), nine autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, three pernicious anaemia, 65 iron deficiency anaemia, 57 megaloblastic anaemia and malaria, 18 mixed deficiencies, and 11 patients had visceral leishmaniasis. Sex- and age-related distribution of the various disorders was also presented. In conclusion, the leukaemias were the most frequently encountered diagnosis followed by iron deficiency anaemia, megaloblastic anaemia and malaria, aplastic anaemia and ITP respectively. The other haematological disorders were less common. These findings are comparable with that seen in other developing and developed countries.

Hematological malignancies diagnosed by bone marrow examination in a tertiary hospital at Uttarakhand, India

“…The fact that we got more cases of AML than CML in our study may be explained by the fact that Bone Marrow Examination was the basis of case collection in our study and some cases of CML diagnosed only on peripheral smear might have been missed. Studies of Idris M et al [7] and Al Ghazaly et al [2] match our fi ndings of AML being the most common form among all leukemias.…”

“…Leukemias We found a very high distribution of acute leukemias -92 / 129 (71%) cases of leukemias compared to 123 chronic leukemia 37/129 (28.5%). Similar high incidence of Acute leukemia has been reported by Kwiatkowski A [6], C Besson et al [3], Idris M [7], Al Ghazaly et al [2], Pradhan PK et al [8] and Chatterjea et al [9]. However Hansen NE et al [10] found more cases of chronic leukemias in their study (60%) as compared to acute leukemias.…”

“…If a malignancy was not evident on bone marrow aspiration or if bone marrow aspirate was not performed it was not included in the study. Al Ghazaly et al [2] have studied 627 cases of hematological diseases and reported that leukemia was the most common diagnosis on bone marrow examination. We found 129 / 220 (58.05%) cases of leukemia and thus leukemia was found to be the commonest diagnosis on bone marrow examination in our series as well.…”

Spectrum of Diseases Diagnosed by Bone Marrow Examination in Central India

“…Hematological parameters in our study were as follows: (11) Al-Ghazaly J et al (2006) (12) Our study (2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) Our findings are similar to others as majority of cases were in nonmalignant group and most common disease in nonmalignant group was megaloblastic anemia, Anita et al 11 reported 87% MA unusually high, reason may be, she has studied all cases having anemia. In our series MA incidence is much higher 41.81% in comparison to 12.3% Pudasaini et al 9 study in Nepal & 24.92% reported by Fazlur Rahman et al 10, Pakistan, both are different geographically and in food behavior.…”

Spectrum and analysis of bone marrow findings in anemic cases

“…Our study is in concordance with the various other studies from developing countries which reflect high prevalence of nutritional anemias (megaloblastic anemia, iron deÞ ciency and mixed deÞ ciency) among non pediatric population. [2,3] Organomegaly was present in a lower percentage of our cases as compared with Sarode et al [4] Co-existing iron deÞ ciency (mixed deÞ ciency) …”