Affiliations: [a] Department of Pathology, Dr. ALM Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Chennai, India | [b] Department of Hematology Oncology, Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore, Chennai, India
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: P. Shanthi, Department of Pathology, Dr. ALM Post-Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Madras, Taramani Campus, Chennai 600 113, India. E-mail:shanthipalanivelu@gmail.com
Abstract: The incidence of Acute Leukemia (AL) subtypes varies according to
geographical distribution and more predominant in developing countries. The
aim here was to evaluate the usefulness of cost effective diagnostic tools
in characterization of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in resource poor
population. One hundred and two AL cases were diagnosed. For diagnosis,
cytochemical analysis and immunohistochemistry were performed. Among the
children < 12 years, ALL was 64.3% while AML accounted for 30%. In
patients > 12 years, ALL was 59.4% and AML was 31.3%. The B-ALL
occurred most frequently than T-ALL in both the age groups while based on
immunophenotyping in AML, CD13 was the most commonly expressed antigen.
Hence, cost effective diagnostic tools namely the immunophenotyping and
cytochemistry are useful and improve accuracy and rapidly risk-stratify
patients that were diagnosed with acute leukemia.
Keywords: Acute leukemia, cytochemistry, immunophenotyping, CD markers
