[Acute leukemia revealed by bone magnetic resonance imaging: Two pediatric case reports]

Bone and joint pain are common causes of pediatric consultation for a variety of etiologies. The causes are mostly traumatic or infectious or have an inflammatory origin. Acute leukemia (AL) can sometimes begin with osteoarticular signs and radiological investigations such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help guide the diagnosis. We report on two cases of pediatric AL revealed by osteoarticular signs, with MRI helpful in the diagnostic procedure. In these children, the first signs were recurrent joint pain, with no blood count anomalies. There was a delay between the onset of arthralgia and diagnosis due to atypical presentation of the disease. MRI guided the investigations to the diagnosis of AL. The persistence of pain or inflammation must lead to considering a bone MRI and a complete blood count must be repeated in case of persistent inflammatory bone pain to avoid a missed diagnosis of blood disease.