Ophthalmologic Findings in Children with Leukemia: A Single-Center Study

Ophthalmologic disease in patients with acute leukemia occurs due to primary leukemic infiltration (involvement), or secondary to the disease and its treatment. In recent years the life expectancy of acute leukemia patients has increased with the advent of modern therapies. The present study aimed to determine the incidence of ocular manifestations in children with acute leukemia.

The study included 120 patients diagnosed with acute leukemia at Başkent University Hospital, Pediatric Hematology Department between 1995 and 2010. All the patients were examined by an ophthalmologist via direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy.

Among the patients, 83 (69.2%) were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 35 (29.1%) with acute myeloblastic leukemia, and 2 (1.7%) with mixed-lineage leukemia. In all, 58 ophthalmic manifestations were noted in 41 patients (34.2%). In our patients, 12 ophthalmologic involvements were present at admission and 46 ocular findings occurred during follow-up. The incidence of these manifestations increased with age.

Ophthalmologic manifestations were not correlated with gender, hematological parameters at disease onset, type of leukemia, or the frequency of relapse and survival. To more clearly determine the effect of ophthalmologic manifestations on the prognosis of leukemia, larger scale and multi-center studies are needed.