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ACUTE LEUKEMIAS IMMUNOPHENOTYPES AT AGAKHAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, NAIROBI
B Kabera1, M Riyat, W M Macharia
1Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. beatskaf@yahoo.com
Insights
This study determined acute leukemia immunophenotypes in 132 patients, finding AML-M2 most common among acute myeloid leukemia and B-cell subtypes prevalent in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Specific subtypes like T-cell ALL were less frequent than reported elsewhere in Africa.
Area of Science:
- Hematology
- Oncology
- Immunology
Background:
- Accurate immunophenotyping is crucial for diagnosing acute leukemia subtypes.
- Understanding the relative frequencies of different leukemia subtypes is essential for effective treatment strategies and epidemiological studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the relative frequencies of acute leukemia immunophenotypes.
- To describe the clinicopathological characteristics of acute leukemia patients.
- To compare local subtype frequencies with existing African data.
Main Methods:
- Prospective cross-sectional study involving 132 patients with suspected acute leukemia.
- Analysis of cytomorphological characteristics and immunophenotyping of blood and bone marrow specimens.
- Assignment of immunological categories using the European Group for the Immunological Classification of Leukemia (EGIL) criteria.
Main Results:
- 88 Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and 42 Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) cases were analyzed.
- AML-M2 was the most frequent morphological subtype (29.5%).
- B-cell ALL comprised 96.6% of ALL cases, with early pre-B phenotype being the most common (62.07%).
Conclusions:
- Immunophenotyping is valuable for accurate acute leukemia diagnosis in this setting.
- T-cell ALL, AML-M6, and AML-M7 are less common in this population compared to other African studies.
- Findings highlight regional variations in acute leukemia subtype distribution.
Objective:
The aim was to determine relative frequencies of acute leukemia immunophenotypes using commonly expressed markers and to describe the clinicopathological characteristics. Design: This was a prospective cross-sectional study.
Setting:
The study was based at Aga khan clinical laboratory department.
Subjects:
One hundred and thirty two (132) consecutive blood and bone marrow specimens from patients suspected to have acute leukemia were analysed for cytomorphological characteristics and immunophenotyping. The clinical-pathological characteristics were also recorded. Immunological category was assigned using the EGIL criteria.
Results:
There were 88 AML and 42 ALL patients analysed for immunophenotypes. Only tw cases of biphenotypic leukemia were found. The commonest overall AML morphological sub-type was AML-M2, 26 (29.5%). Majority of ALL cases were B-cell immunological sub-type (96.6%). Early pre-B phenotype constituted 62.07% and Common B-cell ALL 37.93%. There were only 4 cases of T-cell ALL. Majority of patients presented with anaemia with a median hemoglobin of 7.5g/dl (range 2-15g/dl). The median platelet count was 55 (range 4-462 x 10(9)/L).
Conclusion:
Immunophenotyping of acute leukemia is beneficial in accurate diagnosis of patients with these malignancies in this setup. T-cell ALL, AML-M6 and M7 are less frequent than what has been reported in most studies in Africa.
