ISSUES OF ACUTE LEUKEMIA DIAGNOSIS

Acute leukemia is a rapidly progressing disease. It is difficult to detect it in its early stages and the clinical picture usually appears only when the bone marrow is already significantly infiltrated by tumor blast cells — that is, when there is massive infiltration by blast cells and extramedullary metastases have also developed. The situation is further complicated by the fact that leukemia has no single pathognomonic symptom; Therefore, patients are often admitted to the clinic with unclear diagnoses and various manifestations, already in a very severe condition. In such cases, management of the critical condition is required and the main diagnosis is established in parallel with resuscitative measures. Based on the examples from our clinic, we describe various clinical pictures, critical conditions, resuscitative measures performed and key aspects of the morphological diagnosis in patients diagnosed with acute leukemia.