What are clinical manifestations in leukaemias?
Acute: Symptoms result from bone marrow failure, or from organ infiltration with
leukemic cells, or both. It is a sudden onset illness along with high fever, intermittent
infections, anaemia, anorexia, weakness, loss of weight, haemorrhagic manifestations
(e.g., gum bleeding, petechiae, purpura, etc.), gum hypertrophy,
hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy (more in ALL in comparison to AML) and
presence of sternal tenderness. Children and young adults are affected mainly. The
disease course is stormy and of short duration, if not diagnosed and treated early.
Chronic: CML patients present in 30–80 years of age. They may be asymptomatic,
or complains of dragging pain in left hypochondrium (as a result of massive
splenomegaly), or presents with non-specific symptoms like loss of appetite,
tiredness, loss of weight, anaemia and infections; sternal tenderness is present. There
is presence of Philadelphia chromosome in blood, which is nothing but shortening of
long arms of chromosome 22 due to balanced reciprocal translocation of genetic
material with chromosome 9.
In CLL (peak age 65 years), the onset is insidious like CML where anaemia develops
slowly. The patient presents with painless, firm and discrete lymphadenopathy
(generalised); sternal tenderness is absent but moderate splenomegaly is present
Acute: Symptoms result from bone marrow failure, or from organ infiltration with
leukemic cells, or both. It is a sudden onset illness along with high fever, intermittent
infections, anaemia, anorexia, weakness, loss of weight, haemorrhagic manifestations
(e.g., gum bleeding, petechiae, purpura, etc.), gum hypertrophy,
hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy (more in ALL in comparison to AML) and
presence of sternal tenderness. Children and young adults are affected mainly. The
disease course is stormy and of short duration, if not diagnosed and treated early.
Chronic: CML patients present in 30–80 years of age. They may be asymptomatic,
or complains of dragging pain in left hypochondrium (as a result of massive
splenomegaly), or presents with non-specific symptoms like loss of appetite,
tiredness, loss of weight, anaemia and infections; sternal tenderness is present. There
is presence of Philadelphia chromosome in blood, which is nothing but shortening of
long arms of chromosome 22 due to balanced reciprocal translocation of genetic
material with chromosome 9.
In CLL (peak age 65 years), the onset is insidious like CML where anaemia develops
slowly. The patient presents with painless, firm and discrete lymphadenopathy
(generalised); sternal tenderness is absent but moderate splenomegaly is present