[A monocentric study on the management of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes in Morocco]

We conducted a retrospective descriptive analytical study in the Department of Clinical Haematology at the Mohammed V Military Training Hospital in Rabat over a period of 10 years. This study included 76 patients diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) between 2008 and 2018. The average number of cases per year was 7.6. Out of 76 patients, 57% were men and 43% were women. The average age of our study population was 65.75 ± 12.55. The average age was 66.88 ± 13.10. No cases of profession exposed to disease was reported. Ninety-seven point three percent of patients had primary myelodysplastic syndrome and only 2 or 2.7% had myelodysplastic syndrome secondary to chemotherapy. The average time between the first visit and the diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome was, on average, 33.6 days ± 51, with a median of 19 days. The IPSS prognostic score was: low risk in 37.4% of cases, intermediate risk 1 in 46.6% of cases, intermediate risk in 12% of cases and high risk in 4% of cases. Thus, 84% of patients had low-risk MDS and 16% had high-risk MDS. Regular monitoring of patients showed many complications such as bleeding in 13% of patients, infections in 8% of cases, secondary hemochromatosis as a result of iterative transfusions in 6.6% of patients and transformation to acute myeloid leukemia in 2.7% of patients. In our study, abstention was the therapeutic choice in 42.1% of patients, transfusion was recommended in 35.5% of patients: red cells in 70% of cases, platelet concentrates in 40% of cases, iron chelators in 25% of transfused patients and EPO in 27% of patients. azacitidine was prescribed in 18% of patients, 50% had low-risk MDS and 50% had high-risk MDS. Bone marrow transplant was the only curative treatment for MDS. It was performed in a single patient with high risk MDS.