Role of bone marrow aspiration and biopsy in elaborating the diagnosis of pancytopenia

Abstract

Background and Aims: Pancytopenia may be a manifestation of a wide variety of disorders which primarily or secondarily affects the bone marrow. Bone marrow failure syndromes and malignancies are serious and life threatening causes, but certain non-malignant conditions such as infection, and nutritional anemia are equally important. The severity of pancytopenia and the underlying pathology determine the implementation of correct management and prognosis. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study conducted for a period of two years on 134 patients of pancytopenia. Detailed history, thorough clinical examination, complete hemogram, peripheral smear examination, reticulocyte count evaluation and bone marrow aspiration was performed in all cases. In addition, trephine biopsy was done in the same setting wherever indicated. Results: The age ranged from 15 to 75 years with a mean age of 30.9 years. The most common cause of pancytopenia was Megaloblastic anemia (37%) followed by Nutritional anemia (31%), aplastic anemia (9%) and Leukemia (1.75%). Majority (79%) of the patients had hyper cellular bone marrow followed by hypocellular (13%) and normal cellular marrow (8%). Conclusion: Elaborate hematological investigations and bone marrow examination, both, in correlation with clinical findings are vital for the diagnosis of pancytopenia. Bone marrow Aspiration and Trephine biopsy, complement each other in diagnosis of challenging cases

Etiological and Clinical Spectrum of Pancytopenia Based on Peripheral Blood Smear and Bone Marrow Examination: A Cross-sectional Study

“…In the present study, the majority of the cases were in the age group 21 to 30 years which is similar to the study of Chandan RH, et al with reported 40% cases in the same age group [6]. Another study conducted in both rural and urban communities of eastern India reported the prevalence of pancytopenia and it was found to be prevalent in the younger age group (14 to 45 years) [7].…”