Clinical and haematological parameters in adult AML patients: a four year experience at Nanakaly hospital for blood diseases

Background and objectives: In adults, acute myeloid leukaemias constitute 80% of all acute leukaemia cases; its incidence progressively increases with age To define the clinical and haematological parameters of adult acute myeloid leukaemia in Erbil City. Methods: A painstaking analysis of hospital records of 94 adult patients with acute myeloid leukaemia was undertaken. The cases were diagnosed and managed at Nanakaly hospital during the years 2006-2009. Diagnosis was based on peripheral blood and marrow findings. The myeloid origin was confirmed by cytochemistry, and morphological subtyping was done according to the French-American-British (FAB) criteria. Microsoft excel version 2007 was employed for carrying out statistical analysis. Results: The studied group included 58 males and 36 females (M: F = 1.6:1). Their ages ranged between 16 and 75 years with a mean age of 33.8 years. Pallor was the commonest presenting feature (70.2%) followed by bleeding (22.3%) then fever (7.5%). The mean value of Hb was (7.6) g/dl, WBCs (34.5 x10 6 /L), platelets (39.6 x10 9 /L); the percentage of blast cells in peripheral blood was 42.5% and in the bone marrow was 65.9%. AML-M2 was the most frequent FAB subtype 24.4%. Conclusion: AML was commoner in males than in females (1.6:1). AML-M2 was the commonest FAB subtype. Pallor was the commonest presenting feature. Sudan black-B stain was a useful tool in the diagnosis of myeloid leukaemia .