The Significance of Bone Marrow Morphology for the Diagnosis of Polycythaemia vera

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cellularity, megakaryocyte number, size and volume were quantitated in aspirated sternal bone marrow sections of well defined groups of polycythaemia, control subjects and chronic myelocytic leukaemia (CML). A discriminant analysis carried out on this material has shown that the examination of cellularity and of the number of megakaryocytes/mm2 whole bone marrow is sufficient to assign the majority of cases to the correct group of untreated polycythaemia vera (PV). No other case than PV was assigned to this group.The results of the statistical analysis allow the conclusion that in the presence of an increased red cell mass the finding of an increased number of megakaryocytes and a high cellularity in sternal marrow sections is per se satisfactory for making a positive diagnosis of PV, when this disease is to be differentiated from other polycythaemias and controls. The absence of these findings does not exclude however the diagnosis. The differentiation from CML cannot be made on this basis. In those rare cases of early CML with an increased red cell mass, the estimation of the megakaryocyte size might be helpful for diagnosis.