Introduction: Pancytopenia, simultaneous presence of anemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia, is a common manifestation of a wide variety of diseases arising from or involving the bone marrow. Evaluation of hematological parameters including peripheral blood film examination and bone marrow evaluation helps in identifying the cause in most of the cases.

Materials and Methods: A total of 143patients presenting with pancytopenia between Jan 2018 to Dec2018to the department of pathology were included in the study. Relevant clinical history and physical examination were taken. A complete Hemogram, peripheral blood film examination and bone marrow evaluation was done and results were observed and analyzed.

Results: The most of the patients were in age group of adolescents and young adults. There was a slight predisposition for female sex. On bone marrow aspiration, megaloblastic anemia was found to be the commonest cause of pancytopenia followed by dual deficiency anemia. Hematological malignancies constituted a significant cause with acute myeloid leukemia as the most common one. Aplastic anemia was seen in 5 cases. Bone marrow biopsy aided in diagnosis in a plastic anemia while in others it was concordant with aspiration findings.

Conclusion: Bone marrow evaluation is an important diagnostic tool in the evaluation of pancytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration gives diagnosis in majority of the cases; however, bone marrow trephine biopsy is helpful in many cases especially in cases of dry tap. Megaloblastic anemia is the commonest cause and a treatable one.

Keywords: Pancytopenia, Megaloblastic anemia, Bone marrow aspiration, Bone marrow trephine biopsy.

1. de Gruchy GC: Pancytopenia, aplastic anemia. In De Gruchy’s clinical hematology in medical practice,5^th Edited by Firkin F, Chesterman C, Penington D, Rush B. Berlin, Germany: Blackwell Science; 1989:119–136.
2. Varma N, Dash S. A reappraisal of underlying pathology in adult patients presenting with pancytopenia. Trop Geogr Med. 1992;44:322-327.
3. Jain and Naniwadekar .An etiological reappraisal of pancytopenia - largest series reported to date from a single tertiary care teaching hospital. BMC Hematology 2013, 13:10 http://biomedcentral.com/2052-1839/13/10
4. Pooja Agarwal et al. Evaluation of pancytopenia in adults through haematological parameters and bone marrow studies. Indian Journal of Pathology and Oncology, October-December, 2018;5(4):548-553 548
5. Azaad, M.A., Li, Y.P., Zhang, Q.R. and Wang, H.X. (2015) Detection of Pancytopenia Associated with Clinical Manifestation and Their Final Diagnosis. Open Journal of Blood Diseases, 5, 17-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojbd.2015.53004
6. Kumar R, Kalra SP, Kumar H, Anand AC, Madan M. Pancytopenia-A six year study. J Assoc Physicians India. 2001; 49:1079–81. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
7. Khunger JM, Arculselvi S, Sharma U, Ranga S, Talib VH. Pancytopenia-A Clinico-hematological study of 200 cases  Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2002;45:375– [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
8. Knodke K, Marwah S, Buxi G, Vadav RB, Chaturvedi NK. Bone marrow examination in cases of pancytopenia. J Academy Clin Med. 2001;2:55.

Kouser Sideeq Lone

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.