title: Epidemiology, Clinico-Haematological Profile and Management of Aplastic Anaemia: AIIMS Experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The incidence of aplastic anaemia (AA) is higher in Asia than in the West. The precise incidence of AA in India is not known due to lack of epidemiological study. 20-40% of pancytopenic patients in referral centres are of aplastic anaemia.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was an analysis of 1501 patients diagnosed with aplastic anaemia over a period of seven and half years (January 2007- June 2014) attending the Aplastic clinic of department of haematology of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The details regarding medical history, physical examination, complete blood count, bone marrow aspirate and biopsy, treatment received, were retrieved. Inherited bone marrow failure was screened in patients below 35 years. Treatment response was analysed for various treatment modalities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  1501 patients of AA from 20 different states of India were analysed. The bulk of patients were from Uttar Pradesh (28.7%), Bihar (23.6%), Delhi/NCR (20%) and Haryana (7%).The average number of new aplastic anaemia patients enrolled per year 214 (range: 101 -263). The median age at presentation was 25 years (range 2-83),with M;F - 2.3:1. Severity of AA revealed: severe (SAA): 75%, very severe (VSAA): 15%, non-severe (NSAA): 10%. Inherited bone marrow failure syndromes constituted 5% (75 patients) of all aplastic anaemia patients. The most common clinical presentations were pallor (97%), bleeding manifestations (69.6%) and fever (54%). The haematological parameters showed: median level of haemoglobin level: 5.9 gm/dL, WBC: 2700/mm3, ANC: 380/mm3, platelet: 1 0000/mm3. PNH clone was present in 13.5% of patients. 107 patients (7%) were lost to follow up or expired before any treatment was initiated. Only 69 patients (4.5%) received treatment with HLA-matched sibling stem cell transplantation and another 232 (15.5%) patients received ATG plus cyclosporine as immunosuppressive therapy. Seven hundred thirteenpatients (47.5%) received cyclosporine. The overall response to various treatment modalities was: HLA matched sibling haematopoietic stem cell transplant: 75.3%, Anti-thymocyte globulin plus cyclosporine: 58.7%, cyclosporine plus androgen: 45.6%, cyclosporine alone: 32.2%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Management of AA is a real challenge in developing countries.This is one of the largest case series from a single centre from India. It is our endeavour to reduce the detrimental outcome by increasing awareness among patients and referring physicians to reduce the delay between diagnosis and treatment.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahapatra
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agarwal
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prabhu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seth
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tyagi
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saxena
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000741:Anemia, Aplastic / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D001856:Bone Marrow Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019468:Disease Management; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D062072:Patient Acuity; D012189:Retrospective Studies