title: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia presenting with extreme hyperleukocytosis and thrombosis of the common femoral vein.
abstract: Very few case reports dealing with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and hyperleukocytosis have been reported in the medical literature and none with venous thrombosis as a complication. Here, we describe a 73-year-old woman who presented with newly diagnosed CLL, leukostasis, and hyperleukocytosis (2000 x 10(9)/l), affecting the respiratory and nervous system. In addition, she also had deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Although hypercoagulability and thrombosis are well-described phenomena in solid tumors and in myeloproliferative neoplasms, CLL is generally not associated with an acquired coagulopathy. We hypothesize that in our patient the extreme number of circulating lymphocytes resulted in an abnormal accumulation of lymphocytes possibly causing stasis and occlusion of a larger vessel, which resolved after leukopheresis. The patient has since been successfully maintained with chemotherapy. We conclude that leukopheresis should be considered as the therapy of choice in CLL patients presenting with major complications of leukostasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Tali
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cukierman
authors.forename: Moshe E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Gatt
authors.forename: Dianna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Libster
authors.forename: Neta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goldschmidt
authors.forename: Yaacov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matzner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005268:Femoral Vein / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D015451:Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D007964:Leukocytosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy