Difficulties of anemia diagnosis in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Abstract

Cytopenia commonly occurs in case of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. It can either precede the diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia or appear at any time during the disease. Autoimmune hemolytic anemia, immune thrombocytopenia, and partial red cell aplasia are most often found among cytopenias in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. At the same time, the development of cytopenia may be associated with the displacement of normal hematopoiesis cells by tumor lymphocytes. It is very important to accurately diagnose and identify the cause of cytopenia in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, since the prognosis and therapy differ significantly.

Keywords

• chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• autoimmune hemolytic anemia
• partial red cell bone marrow aplasia
• immune thrombocytopenia
• fisher–evans syndrome