Clinical Presentation and some Laboratory Findings During Four Years' Experience of AML Children

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia comprises only 15% to 20% of acute leukemia in children. It remains a challenging disease with an inferior treatment outcome in comparison with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). This study aimed to document the clinical presentation and some lab. findings in children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) treated in the Child's Central Teaching Hospital (CCTH) in Baghdad / Iraq. This retrospective study was conducted at CCTH in Baghdad, during the period from 1_st  January 2009 to 31^st December 2012 on 49 cases who were diagnosed as AML. Down syndrome (DS) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), with undifferentiated leukemia were excluded from this study. The average age of presentation was 5 years, and the median duration of symptoms was 4 weeks, with male (M): female (F) ratio = 1.13:1. Eleven patients not received treatment either died or lost follow-up. The most common presenting feature was fever & pallor in 100% followed by bleeding in 69%. Initial white blood cell count (WBC) > of 100×10⁹/L was seen in 30.6% of patients. It can be concluded that there was slight male predominance. Most common presenting feature was fever and pallor, and the patients developed anemia (low levels of Hb%), leukocytosis (high WBC counts) and thrombocytopenia (decreased platelet counts).