Jagannath Jatav 1 , Bharat Jain 2 , Amit Kumar Niranjan 3
BACKGROUND Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), a malignancy of lymphoid lineage cells, has excellent prognosis in children. Leukemia is the most prevalent childhood cancer and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) constitutes 75% of all cases. The most frequent presenting symptoms are fever, weight loss and pallor. Early detection of clinical symptoms positively affects timely diagnosis. AIMS & OBJECTIVES The objectives of the present study were to assess frequency of presenting symptoms, laboratory data and prognostic factors in children with diagnosis of ALL. MATERIALS & METHODS The present study (2014) was performed in the hematology section of Department of Pathology of Gajra Raja Medical College, Gwalior over a period of 12 months from 1st October 2013 to 30th September 2014. This was a prospective study. The blood samples were received from various departments of Jayarogya hospital especially from the Pediatric and Medicine departments. RESULTS Out of the 37 cases diagnosed as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, 25(67.57%) were male and 12(32.43%), were female, (male:female ratio: 2.1:1). 43.35% of patients which comprises highest number of cases belonged to 11-20 years of age group. The most frequent presenting symptoms was fever (83.78%) followed by weakness (70.27%) and loss of appetite (27% while most frequent presenting sign was pallor (86.48%) followed by lymphadenopathy (67.57%) and splenomegaly (48.65%)). Complete blood cell count was abnormal in all of the patients, and pancytopenia was detected in 10.81% of the patients. Of all the patients, 91.89% had abnormal white blood cell (WBC) count at presentation, 10.81% had leucopenia and 80% had leucocytosis. FAB L1 subtype was more common as compared to FAB L2 subtype. CONCLUSION In our study (2014), Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia was more prevalent in males than in females and more common in childhood than in adult. FAB L1 subtype was more common as compared to FAB L2 subtype.
