A hematological study on thirteen cats with myelodysplastic syndrome

Hematological abnormalities were investigated in 13 cats with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Examination of the peripheral blood samples from the 13 cats revealed anemia in 11 cats, leukopenia in 9 cats, and thrombocytopenia in 9 cats. Four cats had pancytopenia (30.8%) and 9 cats had bicytopenia (69.2%). Dysplastic changes of erythrocytes, neutrophils, and platelets in the peripheral blood were found in 5, 10 and 8 cats, respectively. Bone marrow examination of the 13 cats revealed that ratios of blast cells to all nucleated cells (ANC) ranged from 0 to 20%. Ratios of erythroid progenitor cells to ANC were more than 50% in 3 cats and less than 50% in 10 cats. Eosinophils accounted for more than 5% of non-erythroid cells in 10 cats. Dysplastic changes in the granurocytic, erythrocytic, and megakaryocytic cells in the bone marrow were found in 11, 7 and 5 cats, respectively. Dysplastic changes in these cats included giant neutrophils, ring-nucleated neutrophils, binuclear myelocytes, hypersegmented and hyposegmented neutrophils, megaloblastoid erythroblasts, multinucleated erythroblasts, micromegakaryocytes, and segmented multinucleated megakaryocytes. Virological examination indicated the presence of feline leukemia virus antigen in the peripheral blood from all of the 13 cats with MDS. The peripheral blood cytopenias and dysplastic changes in each blood cell lineage in the bone marrow were shown to be important for the diagnosis of MDS in cats.