A reappraisal of underlying pathology in adult patients presenting with pancytopenia

An analysis of the underlying pathology and different clinico-haematological features of 202 adult pancytopenic patients is presented. Aplastic anaemia (40.6%), megaloblastic anaemia (23.26%) and acute myeloblastic leukaemia (12.8%) together accounted for most of the cases. Our aplastic anaemia cases showed several different features compared to the cases reported in western literature. Aplastic anaemia and megaloblastic anaemia patients revealed significant differences in the incidence of hepatosplenomegaly, anisocytosis, circulating erythroblasts, relative lymphocytosis (P < 0.001 for all) and reticulocytosis (P < 0.01). The present study stresses the importance of physical and peripheral blood findings in the management of pancytopenic patients.