Leukemia is a class of clonal malignant diseases of hematopoietic stem cells in which the leukemic cells in the clone lose the ability to further differentiate and mature and are stalled at various stages of cell development, proliferating and accumulating in the bone marrow and other hematopoietic tissues, and infiltrating other organs and tissues, while normal hematopoietic function is suppressed.
The onset of leukemia varies. The acute cases can be sudden high fever or severe bleeding tendency; the slow cases are often manifested by pallor, purpura of the skin, or unstoppable bleeding after tooth extraction, anemia, weakness, weight loss, and enlarged lymph nodes.
The routine blood tests are leukocytic in most patients, with a significant increase in the late stage of the disease, but a number of patients have a normal or reduced white blood cell count; about half of all patients have low platelets, which are often extremely reduced in the late stage.
Blood counts can only play an adjunctive role in the diagnostic diagnosis of leukemia, and it is not realistic to confirm the diagnosis of leukemia by blood counts alone. The diagnosis of leukemia must be confirmed using routine bone tests. If the results of routine blood tests are abnormal with the possibility of leukemia, a bone marrow aspiration is required to make a further diagnosis of leukemia, only a bone marrow test can confirm the presence of leukemia.
