BACKGROUND:

Hematological malignancies include diverse and biologically distinct subgroups  and can be defined as clonal neoplasm of hematopoietic stem cells characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of immature cells in bone marrow and spilling into peripheral blood. The patterns of subtypes of hematological malignancies vary in different populations and geographic areas because of genetic, environmental, dietary and social factors. Research of epidemiological features of leukemia are poorly reported in Tripura. The objective of the study is to get an idea about the pattern of hematological malignancies in our institute.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

This is a one year prospective and two years retrospective study conducted in the department of Pathology, Tripura Medical College & DR BRAM Teaching Hospital March 2014–March 2017. Medical records of all patients admitted to our hospital and diagnosed as a case of hematological malignancy were reviewed for demographic and clinical characteristics at diagnosis. Data analysis was performed by using SPSS version 16.

RESULTS:

 A total number of 62 cases of hematological malignancies were diagnosed and included in our study of which 41 were of acute leukemia and 17 cases were of chronic leukemia. Amongst the cases of acute leukemia, 21 were diagnosed as AML and 12 were diagnosed as ALL. Out of chronic leukemic cases, 15 were diagnosed as CML aqnd 2 cases were diagnosed as CLL. Overall, males were affected more than females and adults outnumbered the children. Commonest form of leukemia in adults were AML followed by CML whereas in children, the commonest form was ALL followed by AML. Three cases of Multiple Myeloma and one case of Plasma Cell Leukemia and one case of Non Hodgkin Lymphoma infiltrating bone marrow were also diagnosed.

The most common peripheral blood finding in hematological malignancy was pancytopenia followed by bicytopenia.

CONCLUSION:  

In our study, acute leukemia was the most common subtype of leukemia in all age groups. Of all leukemia cases, majority were of AML whereas CLL was found to be the least common. Demographic characteristics were almost the same as other regional reports. Our observation is mostly  comparable with other studies from India and the neighborhood countries.  The differences observed in few demographic parameters may be due to geographic variation and genetic difference of study population.