Clinical and laboratory features of preleukemia patients.
OBJECTIVE
To explore prospective diagnostic criteria for preleukemia.


METHODS
A case control study was done comparing the discrepancies on clinical and laboratory features between patients with preleukemia and those with chronic aplastic anemia (CAA) or atypical paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglubinuria (a-PNH).


RESULTS
There were eight variables of significance: (1) lymphocytoid micromegakaryocytes in the bone marrow; (2) immature granulocytes in the peripheral blood; (3) > or = 2.0% myeloblasts in the bone marrow; (4) positive periodic acid schiff (PAS) stained nucleated erythrocytes; (5) myeloid differentiation index > or = 1.8; (6) typical colonal karyotypic abnormalities; (7) negative sister chromatid differentiation; (8) cluster/colony ratio of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM) > 4.0. The following criteria were assigned: A: to meet variable one and at least two of the other seven variables and B: to meet at least four of the eight variables. All of the patients with preleukemia met either A or B and none of the patients with CAA or a-PNH did.


CONCLUSIONS
Preleukemia is different from CAA or a-PNH. It has its own clinical and laboratory features, which may be useful for its prospective diagnosis.
Shi
Jun
J
First Department of Clinical Hematology, Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin 300020, China.
Shao
Zonghong
Z
Chen
Guibin
G
Li
Ke
K
Liu
Hong
H
Zhang
Yizhi
Y
He
Hong
H
Zhao
Mingfeng
M
He
Guangsheng
G
Zhang
Hong
H
Chu
Yulin
Y
Hao
Yushu
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011289:Preleukemia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate