PATTERN OF HEMATOLOGICAL DISEASES IN HOSPITALIZED PAEDITRIC PATIENTS BASED ON BONE MARROW EXAMINATION

Objective: The objective of this study was to look into various diagnoses of hematological lesions on bone marrow examination in our paediatric age group of patients. Material and Methods: This study was conducted in the Pediatric A Unit and Department of Hematology Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar from 01st Jan 2007 to 31st Dec 2007. Children admitted with pallor, bleeding, lymphadenopathy or visceromegaly having abnormal smear results were included in this study. The data was statistically analyzed by SPSS version 10. Results: One hundred and ninety-eight cases were included in the study. The age range was from 06 months to 14 years with a mean age of5.35 years and standard deviation of± 3.69. Majority (47.5%) ofthese children were in the age range of 1 to 5 years with male to female ratio of 1.53. The commonest disorder was aplastic anemia present in 40 (20.2%) of the cases followed by idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (15.7%), megaloblastic anemia (14.6%) and iron deficiency anemia (7.6 %). Acute leukemia was the predominant malignant disorder present in 11.6% ofthe cases. There were also few cases of histiocytosis and bone marrow secondaries. Visceral leishmaniasis, anemia ofchronic disorders, haemolytic anemia, myeloid hyperplasia, hypersplenism, congenital dyserythropoietic anemia, malaria and Gaucher disease were the other non-malignant hematological disordersfound in this study. Conclusion: Aplastic anemia, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, megaloblastic anemia and leukemia are the commonest hematological disorders in our set up.