acute leukemia Flashcards
There are 2 types of acute leukemia:
- Acute Myelocytic/Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
2. Acute Lymphocytic/Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)
AML epidemiology
- incidence
- prevalent in ___ populations
- median age
- greater in industrial countries: 3/100,000
- increases with age: 80% oc CML in adults but only 15-20% in children
- median age is 68 yrs
ALL epidemiology
- incidence
- prevalent in ___ populations
- median age
- common childhood cancer?
- greater in industrial countries: 1/60,000
- incidence declines with age: 75% of ALL in children less than 20% in adults
- median age 3-5 years
- most common childhood cancer
etiology of leukemia (5)
- underlying genetic disorders
- underlying hematologic disorders
- ionizing radiation
- chemicals
- chemotherapy
clinical presentation of leukemia (5)
- Bone marrow failure
- leukostasis
- coagulopathy
- extra-medullary menifestations
- metabolic abnormalities s
symptoms of?
Non-specific symptoms Fatigue, malaise, weakness (most common) Anorexia and weight loss Fever with or without infection Bruising/bleeding Bone pain
bone marrow failure
leukostasis:
- what is it?
- symptoms
- more common in? AML vs ALL
- stasis of blood flow in cerebral and pulmonary circulation especially if the blast count is over 50,000
- cerebral sympotms include headache,visual change, confusion, stroke and coma and pulmonary symptoms include SOB, tachypnea and hypoxia
- much more common in AML than ALL
coagulopathy
- can contribute to bleeding
- more common in?
- can lead to life threatening
- firbinogen, PT and PTT test
- can contribute to bleeding- DIC
- more common in AML than ALL especially with APL subtype
- can lead to life threatening intracranial or GI hemorrhage
- firbinogen is low PT and PTT are elevated
extra-medullary manifestation in ALL (4)
- lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly
- mediastinal mass
- leukemic meningitis rare at diagnosis but CNS is a common site of relapse
- testes
Extra-medullary manifesstations in AML (3)
- leukemia cutis
- gingival hypertrophy
- chloromas: tumors of blasts
due to rapid cell turn over or lysis from chemotherapy resulting in hyperuricacidemia, hyperphosphatemia, hyperkalemia. Uric acid nephropathy can lead to renal failure.
Tumor lysis syndrome (ALL):
due to renal tubular damage by the lysozyme released from myeloblasts
hypokalemia in AML
artificial in vitro finding due to metabolic activity of blasts in the blood tube after phlebotomy draw
hypoglycemia- metabolic anbnormality
- French-American-British (FAB): >___blasts in the bone marrow
- World Health Organization (WHO): >____% blasts in the bone marrow
- French-American-British (FAB): >30% blasts in the bone marrow
- World Health Organization (WHO): >20% blasts in the bone marrow
are large immature cells with open chromatin
Blasts
have more abundant cytoplasm and may contain granules
Myeloblasts
which are linear aggregates of primary granules are seen only in myeloblasts
Auer rods- (AML)
Myeloblasts have single to multiple nucleoli where lymphoblasts have
Myeloblasts have single to multiple nucleoli where lymphoblasts have less conspicuous nucleoli
AML classification of M3
promyelocytic hypergranular
AML classification of M3v
microgranular variant- APL
- Bilobed nucleus
- Abnormal promyelocytes
- Large granules
- “bundles” of Auer Rods
- t(15;17)
- DIC
Promyelocytic leukemia
AML:M3
small blasts with scanty cytoplasm, inconspicuous nucleoli
ALL-L1
larger blasts with abundant cytoplasm, more prominent nucleoli
ALL-L2
largest blasts with deep basophilic cytoplasm, prominent nucleoli, often vacuolated
ALL-L3