Laboratory Medicine Online  2015;5(3):157-160

doi:10.3343/lmo.2015.5.3.157

A Case of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Developing after Treatment for Brucellosis with Pancytopenia.

Sun Hyung KIM 1 ; Kyung Pyo KIM ; Sanghoon HAN ; Young Ree KIM ; Sung Ha KANG

Affiliations

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Keywords

Brucellosis; Pancytopenia; Acute leukemia

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

Human brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease and has a wide clinical spectrum. Nonspecific hematologic abnormalities related to brucellosis are frequently found, but pancytopenia is uncommon. Malignant diseases have been infrequently reported as a rare cause of pancytopenia in patients with brucellosis. We describe a patient with brucellosis and pancytopenia who was later diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. A 71-yr-old man was admitted to a hospital with fever and pancytopenia. Brucella was cultured from blood, and the bone marrow findings were in accordance with brucellosis. The patient's clinical symptoms improved; however, he still showed pancytopenia after completion of medical treatment. After approximately 6 months, he was readmitted with pneumonia and pancytopenia. The second bone marrow examination revealed hypercellular marrow with increased number of blasts. The chromosome analysis showed 46,XY,trp(8)(q11.2q22)[8]/46,idem,del(7)(q22)[12]. The patient was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia-related changes. He refused further evaluation and therapy, and subsequently died while receiving conservative treatment.