Patterns of pancytopenia in Yemen

The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of pancytopenia in relation to sex and age and to become aware of the clinical manifestations of pancytopenic patients according to the causes of pancytopenia.

This was a prospective descriptive study that included all patients with pancytopenia admitted to or attending the Hematology-Oncology Department in Al-Gamhouria Teaching Hospital, Aden, during the period 1 January-31 December 2005.

The most common causes of pancytopenia were malaria and hypersplenism in > 45% of patients, followed by megaloblastic anemia in 14.7%, and aplastic anemia and acute leukemia in 13.3% each. The other causes as determined in the present study were myelodysplasia in 8.0%, myelofibrosis in 4.0% and iron deficiency anemia in 1.3%. The most common symptom was fever in 86.7% of patients. Pallor and splenomegaly were the most common physical findings.

Hypersplenism and malaria were the most common causes of pancytopenia followed by megaloblastic anemia, aplastic anemia and acute leukemia.