Case Study: Haematological Malignancies
A 55 year old male visited his GP complaining of malaise, night sweats, weight loss and abdominal discomfort.
Due to these symptoms, the doctor requested some laboratory tests including a full blood count.
The results of the full blood count were as follows:
TOTAL WHITE CELL COUNT: 69.7 x 109/L
NEUTROPHILS: 48.0 x 109/L
LYMPHOCYTES: 7.5 x 109/L
MONOCYTES: 7.2 x 109/L
EOSINOPHILS: 1.0 x 109/L
BASOPHILS: 6.0 x 109/L
PLATELETS: 590 x 109/L
HAEMOGLOBIN: 9.8 X g/dl
These results prompted the Biomedical Scientist to look at a blood film. Inspection of the film revealed the presence of immature white blood cells (mainly myelocytes and metamyelocytes) in addition to mature neutrophils. There was also a raised basophil count, raised platelet count and the red blood cells were normocytic and normochromic.
Written report:
You must write a CONCISE 1500 word report on this case.
Include in your account the following:
• A brief introduction
• A likely diagnosis (including reasons why you have come to this conclusion)
• A discussion of the patient's symptoms
• A discussion of key features of the routine haematology results
• A discussion of further laboratory tests that were performed to confirm the diagnosis (make sure that you answer is in keeping with the literature)
• Explain what happened next to the patient in terms of treatment and eventual outcome in keeping with what you would expect for a patient with this disease.