Myeloproliferative disease in the dog and cat: clinical presentations, diagnosis and treatment

The myeloproliferative diseases may present with a variety of clinical signs including regenerative or non-regenerative anaemias, bleeding diatheses, septicaemia or fever of unknown origin. These signs will raise suspicions of myeloproliferative disease but such disease may also be an incidental finding on routine haematological examination. In either case a bone marrow biopsy will be required for confirmation. Investigation for other causes of anaemia, haemostatic dysfunction or other causes of white cell abnormalities is important in animals where the peripheral blood and bone marrow findings are equivocal or atypical of myeloproliferative disease. Treatment of acute myeloproliferative diseases is presently impractical in veterinary medicine. Therapy of the chronic myeloproliferative diseases depends upon the suppression of the proliferation of the affected clones together with attention to the secondary effects of the disease and to the adverse effects of therapy.