Etiological Analysis of Pancytopenia in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Pancytopenia refers to the reduction in all the three cell lines of blood; white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. Its etiology varies with geographical location, genetic predisposition, age and gender. Objective: To determine the most common etiologies of pancytopenia in a hospital of Lahore. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted at Shalamar hospital after taking approval from the Institutional Review Board of Shalamar Medical and Dental College, Lahore. A purposive sample of one hundred admitted patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria for pancytopenia was taken. History was taken and detailed physical examination was done after taking informed consent. Peripheral smear examination, reticulocyte count, Liver function tests (LFTs), Renal function tests (RFTs), vitamin B12 and folic acid levels and viral serology were carried out along with additional investigations as indicated. For statistical analysis SPSS version 20 was used. Results: A total of 100 patients, 9 to 82 years of age with pancytopenia were studied. Mean age of studied population was 50.42 ± 2.61 years, there were 52 female and 48 male patients and with a female to male ratio of 1:0.9. The most common cause of pancytopenia was Chronic Liver Disease (CLD) observed in 66%, followed by megaloblastic anemia in 14%and sepsis in 10%of studied patients. Conclusion: CLD, megaloblastic anemia and sepsis were found to be the most frequent etiologies of pancytopenia in current study.