Bone marrow elements in cerebrospinal fluid: Review of literature with a case study.
Presence of bone marrow elements in cerebrospinal fluid is rare. Journal publications on this topic are few and majority of them were written over a decade ago mostly as case reports in young children or the elderly. The increased cellularity and presence of myeloid precursors can be a pitfall and may be misdiagnosed as leukemia or lymphoma or central nervous system infection, when the specimen is actually not representative. With the intention to create awareness of potential pitfalls and avoid erroneous diagnoses, as well as adding on to the current photo archive of bone marrow elements in CSF, we present a recent case of bone marrow contaminants in the CSF of a 16-year-old girl.
Address: Department of Tissue Pathology and Cytopathology, PathWest Laboratory Medicine, QEII Medical Centre, Hospital Ave, Nedlands WA 6009 ; School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Western Australia, Western Australia.
Anitha Ann
AA
Thomas
Felicia Tze Yee
FT
Goh
Bone marrow; cerebrospinal fluid; contaminant; pitfall