Clinical and epidemiological features of paediatric patients with acute leukaemia in the Clínica Universitaria, Colombia. Clinical series 2011-2014

Abstract

DOI: 10.1016/j.rcpe.2016.01.002

Objective

To describe the clinical features of acute paediatric leukaemia in a high complexity institution.

Materials and methods

A descriptive, retrospective study was conducted using the clinical registers of paediatric patients with a diagnosis of leukaemia between January 2011 and December 2014. The information was entered into a database in Excel (Microsoft Excel 365) and univariate analysis performed using Stata 12 (Stata Corp LP).

Results

Of all the paediatric patients found in the registers, 90% were diagnosed with Acute Lymphoid Leukaemia (ALL), and 10% with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML). The mean age at diagnosis was 4.8 years, and 90% of them lived in urban areas. The most prevalent symptoms were mucocutaneous pallor–66.7% - and fever–33.3%. Mortality in AML was 100% and 22% in ALL. Symptom remission rate with chemotherapy treatment was 77.8%.

Conclusion

In our population, the paediatric acute leukaemia most often corresponds to the lymphoblastic form, predominantly in females, with a mean age at diagnosis of 3.9 years. They live predominantly in urban areas, and the most significant non-specific clinical manifestations are mucocutaneous pallor, fever, and fatigue