Aftab Ahmad Khan, Tahir Jameel, Masood Anwar, Muhammad Ayyub, Suhaib Ahmad, Zahur Ur Rehman.
Chromosomal changes in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Pak J Pathol Jan ;10(2):26-9.

Cytogenetic analysis of leukaemic cells has definite prognostic significance in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). Some of these changes have been found to be associated with poor prognosis e.g. t (11;19), t (4;11), t (8;14), t (1;19), t (9;22) and hypodiploidy while hyperdiploidy is a good prognostic indicator. Thus chromosomal analysis in ALL can be very helpful in selecting the best mode of therapy out of the various modalities available at present. A study was carried out from January, 1997 to December, 1998 at the Haematology Department of Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi in which blood and bone marrow samples from 36 newly diagnosed patients of ALL were cultured aseptically, harvested and subjected to cytogenetic analysis. Twenty one patients (58.3%) were <15 years of age while 15 patients (41.7%) were >15 years. Successful cultures were achieved in 31(86%) of the cases and 05(14%) showed culture failure. Out of these 31 patients, 16 (52%) showed chromosomal abnormalities while 15 (48%) patients had normal karyotype. Hypodiploidy was present in 12 (39%) cases while t (9;22) was detected in 02 (6.5%) cases. Hyperdiploidy was present in only 02 (6.5%) cases. These suggest that at least 50% patients of ALL have bad prognosis

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