Correlation of Bone Marrow Morphology and Immunophenotyping in Acute Leukaemia Patients

Background: Acute leukaemia (AL) is a malignant disorder of the blood that is characterized by blocked or impaired differentiation of haemopoietic stem cells, resulting in abnormal accumulation of immature precursors and suppression of growth and maturation of cells in vivo. Objective: To find out correlation between morphological and immunophenotypic study of bone marrow among acute leukaemia patient. Methods/Procedure: This is a comparative cross sectional study of diagnosis of leukaemia by bone marrow study and immunophenotyping from bone marrow sample with bone marrow alone of suspected cases of leukaemia treated in the department of haematology in Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH)from March 2013 to August 2013 .Bone marrow examination and immunophenotyping was done simultaneously but having bone marrow morphology report we have compared with flow report. Results: Out of 50 patients according to Bone marrow study (BMS) 25(50.0%) of the patients had acute myelogenous leukaemia, 24(48.0%) had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 1(2.0%) had acute leukaemia. On the other hand, in immunophenotyping 28(56.0%) patients had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 20(40.0%) had acute myelogenous leukaemia and 2(4.0%) mixed cell immunophenotyping. Discordance of diagnosis was found in 3(6%) is diagnose as AML which was ALL on flow and one acute leukaemia and one AML was subsequently diagnose as mixed cellular leukaemia. Conclusion: Subjective variation in the accuracy of diagnosis of leukaemia on the basis of bone marrow study alone may occur. Inclusion of immunophenotyping with bone marrow study improves accuracy of leukaemia.