refractory anemia with excess blasts

refractory anemia with excess blasts

Hematology A myelodysplastic syndrome of older persons characterized by anemia or pancytopenia and BM hypercellularity Clinical Nonspecific–anemia of gradual onset, fatigue, weakness, exacerbation of underlying heart disease Lab Anisocytosis, megaloblastoid maturation of erythroid precursors, thrombocytopenia; 5-20% of the BM cells are blasts; < 5% of peripheral cells are blasts Prognosis Guarded; average Pt survives < 1 yr; ±¹⁄₄ undergo leukemic transformation, usually into ANLL Treatment Not all Pts require therapy;¹⁄₃ die of bleeding or infectious complication linked to pancytopenia; intensive chemotherapy may substitute one cause of M&M for another; cytokines and growth factors may be effective. See Myelodysplastic syndrome, PISA.