Current practice of cytology in the diagnosis of acute leukemias in Madagascar

Introduction - Acute leukemias are clone proliferation of cells blocked at a stage of maturation. These pathologies are frequent in Western countries with an incidence of 2.5 to 3.5 / 100 000 inhabitants/year. Their frequency is about 25.5% in Madagascar. In Madagascar, diagnosis and classification of acute leukemias is cytological because our laboratories haven't immunophenotyping, molecular biology and karyotype. We share through this study our daily practice in front of acute leukemia. Method - We conducted a prospective descriptive study of cases of acute leukemia diagnosed between January and April 2017 at hematological laboratory of Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona Antananarivo hospital (Madagascar) Results - During this period, 16 cases of acute leukemia were diagnosed in our unit. Blood and bone marrow smear cytological study revealed 6 cases (37.5%) of ALL2, 4 cases (25.0%) of AML2, 2 cases (12.5%) of AML3, 2 cases (12.5%) of AML4, 1cas (6.25%) of AML5 and 1 case (6.25%) of ALL1. Conclusion - Cytology is crucial in malignant hemopathies, particularly in low resource countries, although the need for molecular biology and immunophenotyping is well established.