Megakaryocytes in chronic phase of chronic myeloid leukemia: A descriptive case series

  • Arun Kumar Arunachalam
  • Mili Jain King George's Medical University, Lucknow, U.P., India
  • Ashutosh Kumar
  • Rashmi Kushwaha
  • Uma Shankar Singh
  • Anil Kumar Tripathi
Keywords: Chronic myeloid leukemia, megakaryocytes, micromegakaryocytes, bone marrow fibrosis.

Abstract

Background: Megakaryocytic proliferation and functional alterations are frequently observed in various myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). An analysis of these alterations provides clue to the diagnosis of MPN such as essential thrombocythemia and myelofibrosis. We in our descriptive study have tried to evaluate and identify the morphological features of the megakaryocytes seen in chronic myeloid leukemia- chronic phase (CML-CP).Methods: Bone marrow aspirate and trephine biopsy from 31 newly diagnosed cases of CML-CP were evaluated for the morphological parameters including count, distribution, clustering, cytoplasmic granularity, nuclear lobes, micromegakaryocytes, fragmented nuclei, bare nuclei, and emperipolesis. All the cases were also evaluated for marrow reticulin fibrosis Result: Megakaryocytic count was increased in 58% of cases (18 out of 31), 67.7% had parasinusoidal distribution, 67.7% had no megakaryocytic clusters. Hypolobation of nuclei and presence of micromegakaryocytes were consistent findings in all the cases. The megakaryocyte count showed a positive correlation with the grade of marrow reticulin fibrosis and peripheral blood platelet count.Conclusion: Characteristic changes in megakaryocyte number, distribution and morphological features is seen in CML-CP and may help in differentiating it from other MPN’s. 

Author Biography

Mili Jain, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, U.P., India
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology

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Published
2016-08-12
Section
Original Article