Importance of bone marrow examination in cases of pancytopenia: A morphological study.

Background: Pancytopenia is a pathological manifestation resulting from various disease processes affecting the bone marrow. Therefore, bone marrow examination is an important diagnostic tool to evaluate the underlying causes of pancytopenia. Methods: Present study was done in 64 cases fulfilling the criteria of pancytopenia over a period of two years. Bone marrow examination including bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy (only in cases of dry tap on aspiration) was performed in all the cases and morphological study along with cytochemical staining was done. The findings were correlated with peripheral blood examination. Diagnostic value of bone marrow examination in cases of pancytopenia was established. Result: 61 out of 64 cases were successfully diagnosed with the morphological examination of bone marrow. The most common cause of pancytopenia in the present study was megaloblastic anemia (57.81%) followed by aplastic anemia (18.75%) and acute leukemia (9.37%). Other causes of pancytopenia were dimorphic anemia due to mixed deficiency, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, infectious disease and storage disease. The diagnostic value of bone marrow examination in cases of pancytopenia in the present study was 95.31%. Conclusion: Morphological examination of bone marrow is an extremely helpful and specific diagnostic tool in cases of pancytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy complement each other but diagnosis can solely be made in most of the cases by examining only the bone marrow aspiration smears.