title: Haematological profile of 21 patients with hairy cell leukaemia in a tertiary care centre of north India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) is a B cell neoplasm which constitutes around 2 per cent of all the lymphoid leukaemias. It has a characteristic morphology and immunophenotypic profile. It is important to distinguish HCL from other B cell lymphoproliferative disorders due to availability of different chemotherapeutic agents. This study presents clinical, haematological and immunophenotypic profile of patients with HCL seen over a period of four years in a tertiary care hospital in north India.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty one cases of hairy cell leukaemia were analyzed for their clinical details, haemogram, bone marrow examination and immunophenotypic findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age of the patients ranged from 28-76 yr with male predominance. Weakness and fever were commonest presentations. Splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, lymphadenopathy were seen in decreasing order of frequency. Anaemia was noted in all 21 patients, leukopenia in 15 and thrombocytopenia in 19 cases. Fourteen patients were pancytopenic. Bone marrow examination showed typical hairy cells in all cases. Immunophenotyping showed expression of CD19, CD20, CD103, CD25 and CD11c in all cases, while positivity was seen for CD79b in 93.7 per cent, kappa light chain restriction in 60 per cent and lambda in 40 per cent cases. Notably, 20 per cent showed CD10 and 12 per cent showed CD23 expression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study reveals some unusual findings in otherwise classical disease entity, like absence of palpable spleen, presence of lymphadenopathy, normal or elevated leukocyte counts, expression of CD10, which at times could be diagnostically challenging.
authors.forename: Arvind Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Man Updesh Singh
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Sachdeva
authors.forename: Jasmina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ahluwalia
authors.forename: Reena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Shano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naseem
authors.forename: Prashant
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Narender
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Pankaj
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Malhotra
authors.forename: Neelam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Varma
authors.forename: Subhash
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Varma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000097:blood; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D039001:Integrin alpha Chains / Q000097:blood; D007943:Leukemia, Hairy Cell / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015260:Neprilysin / Q000097:blood*; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D039001:Integrin alpha Chains; C091367:alpha E integrins; D015260:Neprilysin