title: Current routine practice and clinico-pathological characteristics associated with acute promyelocytic leukemia in Korea.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) can be life threatening, necessitating emergency therapy with prompt diagnosis by morphologic findings, immunophenotyping, cytogenetic analysis, or molecular studies. This study aimed to assess the current routine practices in APL and the clinico-pathologic features of APL.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the medical records of 48 Korean patients (25 men, 23 women; median age, 51 (20-80) years) diagnosed with APL in 5 university hospitals between March 2007 and February 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The WBC count at diagnosis and platelet count varied from 0.4 to 81.0 (median 2.0)×10(9)/L and 2.7 to 124.0 (median 54.5)×10(9)/L, respectively. The median values for prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time were 14.7 (11.3-44.1) s and 29 (24-62) s, respectively. All but 2 patients (96%) showed a fibrin/fibrinogen degradation product value of >20 µg/mL. The D-dimer median value was 5,000 (686-55,630) ng/mL. The t(15;17)(q22;q12 and PML-RARA fusion was found in all patients by chromosome analysis and/or multiplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), with turnaround times of 8 (2-19) d and 7 (2-13) d, respectively. All patients received induction chemotherapy: all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) alone (N=11, 26%), ATRA+idarubicin (N=25, 58%), ATRA+cytarabine (N=3, 7%), ATRA+idarubicin+cytarabine (N=4, 9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Since APL is a medical emergency and an accurate diagnosis is a prerequisite for prompt treatment, laboratory support to implement faster diagnostic tools to confirm the presence of PML-RARA is required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Sunhyun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Joon Seong
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Seong Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Hyun Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jun Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Mi Hyang
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yang Soo
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ho Sup
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Tae Sung
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Eunkyoung
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Insoo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rheem
authors.forename: Joowon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Ji Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Huh
authors.forename: Myung Seo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Sung Ran
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Acute promyelocytic leukemia; All-trans retinoic acid; Cytogenetic analysis; Immunophenotyping; PML-RARA