Acute promyelocytic leukemia history and symptoms

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Shyam Patel [2], Sogand Goudarzi, MD [3]; Grammar Reviewer: Natalie Harpenau, B.S.[4]

Signs and symptoms of acute promyelocytic leukemia are similar to other forms of leukemia, but bleeding and hemorrhagic events are more specific for acute promyelocytic leukemia since these patients are more likely to present with disseminated intravascular coagulation (coagulopathy).

Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia present with a variety of symptoms. The symptoms are related to decreased production of normal red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.^[1]

Patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia have an excess number of blasts in the bone marrow, and this results in myelophthisis, or crowding out of the normal hematopoietic cells, which accounts for the symptoms.^[2][3]

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Shortness of breath with exertion
• Easy bruising from thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy
• Mucosal bleeding from thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy
• Bone and joint pain
• Leg swelling
• Dizziness
• Persistent or frequent infections (from lack of normal white blood cells)

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