Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia: a Single Center Study from Southern Pakistan

Background: Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinctive clinical, biological and molecular subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. However, data from Pakistan are scarce. Therefore we reviewed the demographic and clinical profile along with risk stratification of APL patients at our center. Materials and
Methods: In this descriptive cross sectional study, 26 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia were enrolled from January 2011 to June 2015. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 22.
Results: The mean age was 31.8±1.68 years with a median of 32 years. The female to male ratio was 2:1.2. The majority of our patients had hypergranular variant (65.4%) rather than the microgranular type. The major complaints were bleeding (80.7%), fever (76.9%), generalized weakness (30.7%) and dyspnea (15.38%). Physical examination revealed petechial rashes as a predominant finding detected in 61.5% followed by pallor in 30.8%. The mean hemoglobin was 8.04±2.29 g/dl with the mean MCV of 84.7±7.72 fl. The mean total leukocyte count of 5.44±7.62x109/l; ANC of 1.08±2.98x109/l and mean platelets count were 38.84±5.38x109/l. According to risk stratification, 15.3% were in high, 65.4% in intermediate and 19.2% in low risk groups.
Conclusions: Clinico-epidemiological features of APL in Pakistani patients appear comparable to published data. Haemorrhagic diathesis is the commonest presentation. Risk stratification revealed predominance of intermediate risk disease.