DIC and Its Association with Acute Leukemia in Pre-Treatment and Post Remission Induction Phase

Background:

Hematological malignancy like acute leukemia (AL) is associated with thromboembolic complications.DIC is a worst complication amongst subtypes of AL especially in APML which can be life threatening.

Study design:

Descriptive & cross-sectional study.

Place and duration of study:

National Institute of Blood Disease and Bone Marrow Transplantation; May 2011 to March 2012.

Patients and methods:

110 (75 males, 45 females)diagnosed cases of acute leukemia [43 cases of AML (27 newly diagnosed, 16 in remission induction), 67 cases of ALL (38 newly diagnosed; 29 in remission induction)]were included & 40 ascontrols.Mean age of patients was 25.3±13.8.Platelet count,PT, APTT, Fibrinogen levels, D-Dimer &FDP was done for scoring of DIC on day 0 and 28. SPSS version 17 was used for data analysis.

Results:

Platelet counts significantly improved on day 28 in AML and ALL. PT and APTT levels were significantly deranged. Plasma levels of fibrinogen were higher in both types of acute leukemia in pre-treatment phase, further increased at day 28 (<0.01). FDP significantly raised at day 0 reduced at day 28(AML & ALL). Markedly elevated levels of D-dimer in AML and ALL at day 0,but showed significant reduction at day 28(<0.01). DIC score of <5 was found in 15 (55.56%) patients of AML and 16 (100%) of ALL on day 0 and >5 score was recorded in 12(44.44%) patients of AML on day 28.

Conclusion:

Strong association of DIC was found in AML and ALL at day 0. Non overt DIC did not show any significant association with specific type of acute leukemia and it was equally expressed in both type of acute leukemia at day 0 and 28.