acute myeloid leukemia

ACUTE MYELOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA (AML)

It is a form of leukemia in which the bone marrow and other blood-forming organs produce increased numbers of immature or abnormal leucocytes of the myeloid lineage; thrombocytes, erythrocytes, mast cells, basophils, neutrophils, eosinophils and monocytes(macrophages).
It starts in the bone marrow (the soft inner part of certain bones, where new blood cells are made), but most often it quickly moves into the blood, as well. It can sometimes spread to other parts of the body including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen, central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and testicles.
During this illness, all these cells proliferate fast but do not mature well to carry out their immune functions and therefore major blood functions are interfered with. Symptoms that are associated with this type of leukemia include;


  •         Symptoms of anemia -like tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath on exertion due to a pathologically created low(mature) erythrocyte count
  •         Repeated infections since most immune cells are formed from this progenitor
  •      Bruising and bleeding easily
  •      Lymph node enlargement
  •      Hepatomegaly
  •      Splenomegaly - as overwhelmingly many immature erythrocytes are trapped in the spleen causing it to enlarge


AML is classified into 7 (seven) basing on the morphological appearance of the bone marrow which by extension is the difference created by the predominant cell type involved as shown in the table below.

FAB
SUBTYPE

M1
Myeloblastic (with no maturation)

M2
Myeloblastic (with maturation)

M3
Promyelocytic
Associated with intravascular coagulation
M4
Myelomonocytic
Characterized by skin and gum infiltration with CNS involvement in children
M5
Monoblastic
Rare
M6
Erythroblastic
Rare
M7
Megakaryoblastic  
Rare

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