Inversion of chromosome 3 in a case of chronic myelogenous leukemia with abnormal thrombopoiesis

A patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) associated with a remarkable increase of micromegakaryocytes in bone marrow was revealed to have an abnormality of a long arm of chromosome #3, i.e., inv(3)(q21q26), in addition to a complex Ph translocation: t(9;22;15)(q34;q11;q22). Although several cases of acute leukemia with inv(3)(q21q26) and abnormal megakaryocytes have been reported, this is the first case in which the association of inv(3)(q21q26) with a megakaryocytic abnormality was observed in a patient with CML. Our findings suggest that this structural rearrangement may be more specifically associated with abnormal thrombopoiesis than are other structural anomalies of 3q.