Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Turkiye Klinikleri Pediatri, cilt.33, sa.2, ss.35-40, 2024 (Scopus)
Objective: Although there are researches on the pathologic findings at first presentation in children with acute leukemia in our country, there are no studies on delay in diagnosis. Therefore, clinical findings and reasons for delay in admission of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were retrospectively evaluated. Material and Methods: Although medical documents of 165 leukemia patients who were admitted in the Department of Pediatric Hematology between 1997 and 2017 were evaluated, the time to diagnosis and the other parameters (laboratory tests and treatment) were available for only 62 patients. According to the period from symptom onset to diagnosis, patients were divided into Group 1 (<15 days) and Group 2 (≥15 days). Results: 40% were female, 60% were male, 82% had ALL with an average age of 67 months (9-216), and 18% had AML with an average age of 72 months (8-192). Neck swelling were common in ALL and ocular swelling were common in AML cases (p<0.05). At fisrt presentation, lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly were frequent in ALL (p<0.05). In Group 2, the rate of weight loss or sweating was 3.8 times higher, the presence of lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly was 1.8 times higher, the rate of consulting a doctor before the diagnosis was 1.7 times higher, and using antibiotics and Fe+2/B12/folate were 1.6 and 1.8 times higher, respectively. The mean leukocyte and platelet counts were 63350.8±20750.3/mm3 and 44720.7±7050.4/mm3 in Group 1, 10900.0±2035.9/mm3, and 95900.0±13,250 in Group 2, respectively (p<0.05). The delay in diagnosis did not make a difference in the relapse and death rates. Conclusion: In our study, patients with leukocytosis with blast load were diagnosed early, while patients with cytopenias were diagnosed late. This indicates that future studies on more patients will be important in evaluating the effect of early diagnosis on prognosis.