Praveen Malayath1, Sasidharan P. K2
BACKGROUND
Autoimmune phenomenon is described in many cases of myelodysplastic syndrome. The incidence of autoimmune phenomenon in de novo cases of myelodysplastic syndrome varies from 10 to 30 percent of cases in Western literature with arthritis, vasculitis or haemolytic anaemia. The data from India is very scanty and that from Kerala, virtually non-existent.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of autoimmune phenomenon in diagnosed cases of myelodysplastic syndrome focusing on the prevalence of the different types of autoimmune phenomenon in the cases of myelodysplastic syndrome and to examine if any subtype of myelodysplastic syndrome is more associated with autoimmune phenomenon.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
For this purpose, we studied 117 consecutive confirmed cases of myelodysplastic syndrome that presented to the department of Medicine and Haematology in Calicut Government Medical College between July 2009 and June 2013. The statistical incidence and behaviour of the different autoimmune phenomenon was studied using Chi square test and compared with the existing data.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of autoimmune disorders in the study population of myelodysplastic syndrome was very high compared to western studies (44.44%). There was no gender predilection for the autoimmune phenomenon. Of this the most common autoimmune disease that occurred was autoimmune haemolytic anaemia followed by arthritis. There was no increased incidence of autoimmune phenomenon in any specific subtype of MDS. There was no alteration statistically between myelodysplastic syndrome patients who had autoimmune phenomenon to that of patients who did not, regarding haemoglobin levels, ESR values, incidence of complications and transformation to acute leukaemia.
