Cytogenetic Profile of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) in Patients Received at the Medical Biology Laboratory of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar

Background: The objective of this study was to determinate cytogenetic profiles of patients received at the medical biology laboratory of the Pasteur Institute of Dakar over a 2-year period.

Methods: Twenty-nine samples on heparinized tube from patients suspected of having myeloproliferative syndromes with clinical information sheets were sent to the Biomnis laboratory for cytogenetic study. Karyotyping and molecular cytogenetic analysis: fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on all patients.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 39 years [CI=95%] with extremes of 15 and 68 years. There was a male predominance with a gender ratio M/W of 1.41 and the most represented age group was 35-49 years. The molecular study showed the BCR-ABL transcript present in 86% (n=25) of patients and absent in 14% (n=4). In conclusion 82.76% (n=24) of the patients had chronic myeloid leukaemia with the transcript present in 100% including one patient with translocation t(9;22;16) (q34;q11;p13) as an associated chromosomal abnormality, one case of Phi+ acute leukaemia was also noted.

Conclusion: The FISH analysis is a significant technological advance in the diagnosis and monitoring of CML treatment in Senegal because it can detect several variants resulting from the t(9;22) translocation, which would allow the prediction of primary or secondary resistance in patients.