A Study of Pancytopenia in Adult Patients More than 12 Years of Age in North West Region of Saurashtra

Introduction: Pancytopenia is a manifestation of many serious & life threatening diseases with an extensive differential diagnosis. Major causes of pancytopenia in developing countries are megaloblastic anemia, parasitic infection, hypersplenism and aplastic anemia. Methodology: In this study total 100 cases were studied by examining Peripheral smears of blood samples obtained by routine phlebotomy procedure and stained by Romanowsky stains. Bone marrow sampleswere obtained by routine bone marrow aspiration and biopsy procedures if indicated. Biochemical and other special investigations were done to confirm the diagnosis. Results: Among the 100 cases studied, age of the patients ranged from 13 to 86 years with a mean age of 42.9 years and slight male predominance. Most of the patients presented with generalized weakness and fever. The commonest physical finding was pallor, followed by splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. The commonest marrow finding was hypercellularity with megaloblastic erythropoiesis. The commonest cause for pancytopenia was megaloblastic anemia followed by malaria. Conclusion: The present study concludes that detailed primary hematological investigations along with other supportive tests are helpful to diagnose or to rule out the causes of pancytopenia. Megloblatic anemia is commnest cause of pancytopenia in most Indian and subcontinent studies. Present study also shows that invasive procedures like bone marrow aspiration and biopsy is avoided in most cases of pancytopenia. [Natl J of Med Res 2013; 3(1.000): 48-52]