Hairy cell leukemia--an unusual presentation.
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.
Goyal
R
R
Department of Medical Oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India.
Bajpai
S
S
Chopra
H K
HK
Shinde
S C
SC
Badrinath
Y
Y
Sapre
R S
RS
Nair
C N
CN
Advani
S H
SH
D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron