EVALUATION OF HAEMATOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE MYELOID LEUKAEMIA IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN UGANDA

Abstract

The study was done to determine the haematological features of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia in a tertiary hospital in Uganda. The study was done in Ishaka Uganda at Kampala International University Teaching Hospital, Ishaka, Uganda. The study adopted hospital based cross-sectional design where patients who attended the hospital with acute myeloid luekaemia (AML) were selected for the study on purposive sampling technique and the haematological variables evaluated with the apparently healthy individuals. The ages of the patients were below 25 years. A total of eighty (80) subjects comprising forty (40) acute myeloid patients and forty (40) apparently healthy subjects were recruited for the study using purposive sampling technique. The data were analysed using student t-test and present as mean ± standard deviation using SPSS version 20 and level of significance set at P<0.05. The results showed decrease in WBC (P=0.012), neutrophils P=0.040), HB (P=0.002), RBC (P=0.008), PCV (P=0.005) and increase in RDW (P=0.017) and no significant changes in LYM (P=0.089), MCV (P=0.543), MCH (P=0.057) and MCHC (P=0.051). The results showed decrease in total white cell count, neutrophils, haemoglobin, red blood cells, packed cell volume and increase in Red cell distribution width and no significant changes in Lymphocytes, Mean cell volume, Mean cell haemoglobin and Mean cell haemoglobin concentration.