title: Hairy cell leukemia--an unusual presentation.
abstract: Hairy cell leukemia is a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder affecting middle-aged adults, with the median age of 50-55 years. The majority of the patients present with cytopenia. A high count is usually a feature of the hairy cell leukemia variant. We report a case of a 23-year-old male who presented with fever and cough of 15 days duration. His peripheral blood count was 63 x 10(9)/l. His peripheral blood and bone marrow smear showed hairy cells which were positive for tartarate-resistant acid phosphatase stain. Surface markers and electron microscopic study on peripheral blood ruled out hairy cell leukemia variant as a differential diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goyal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bajpai
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Chopra
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Shinde
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Badrinath
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Sapre
authors.forename: C N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Advani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron