Polycythemia vera differential diagnosis

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Hannan Javed, M.D.[2] Zahir Ali Shaikh, MD[3] Mohamad Alkateb, MBBCh [4]; Shyam Patel [5]
Overview
Polycythemia vera must be differentiated from other myeloproliferative neoplasms, such as chronic myelogenous leukemia, essential thrombocythemia, and primary myelofibrosis. Polycythemia vera must also be differentiated from secondary polycythemia, which is usually due to chronic hypoxia. Each of these conditions have different etiologies, symptoms, laboratory abnormalities, physical exam findings, and treatments.
Differential Diagnosis
Polycythemia vera must be differentiated from a variety of other conditions include:[1][2][3]
- Acute leukemia
- Essential thrombocythemia
- Chronic myeloid leukemia
- Primary myelofibrosis
- Secondary polycythemia
Differentiating Myeloproliferative Disorders
ABBREVIATIONS
N/A: Not available, NL: Normal, FISH: Fluorescence in situ hybridization, PCR: Polymerase chain reaction, LDH: Lactate dehydrogenase, PUD: Peptic ulcer disease, EPO: Erythropoietin, LFTs: Liver function tests, RFTs: Renal function tests, LAP: Leukocyte alkaline phosphatase, LAD: Leukocyte alkaline dehydrgenase, WBCs: White blood cells.
| Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) | Clinical manifestations | Diagnosis | Other features | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Symptoms | Physical examination | CBC & Peripheral smear | Bone marrow biopsy | Other investigations | |||||||||||
| WBCs | Hb | Plat- elets | |||||||||||||
| Leuko-cytes | Blasts | Left shift |
Baso- phils |
Eosino- phils |
Mono- cytes |
Others | |||||||||
| Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), BCR-ABL1+[4][5] |
|
|
β | <2% | + | β | β | β | N/A | β | NL |
|
|
| |
| Chronic neutrophilic leukemia (CNL)[6][7][8] |
|
β | Minimal | + | NL | NL | NL | β | β |
|
|
| |||
| Polycythemia vera (PV)[9][10][11][12] |
|
|
NL or β | None | – | β or β | NL or β | NL | ββ | NL |
|
| |||
| Primary myelofibrosis (PMF)[13][14][15][16] |
|
β | Erythroblasts | – | Absent | NL | NL | β | β |
|
| ||||
| Essential thrombocythemia (ET)[17][18][19] |
|
NL or β |
None |
– |
β or absent |
NL |
NL |
|
ββ |
|
|||||
| Chronic eosinophilic leukemia, not otherwise specified (NOS)[20][21][22][23] |
|
β | Present | + | β | ββ | β | β | β |
|
|
||||
| MPN, unclassifiable |
|
|
β | Variable | Β± | β or β | β or β | β or β |
|
β | β |
|
|
| |
| Mastocytosis[24][25][26][27] |
|
β | None | – | NL | β | NL |
|
β | β or β |
|
| |||
| Myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with eosinophilia and rearrangement of PDGFRA, PDGFRB, or FGFR1, or with PCM1–JAK2[28][29][30][31] |
|
β | NL | – | NL | β | β |
|
NL | β |
|
|
| ||
| B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma[32][33] | NL or β | >25% | N/A | β or β | β or β | β or β | β | β |
|
| |||||
| Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)[34][35] |
β | Variable | – | β | β | β |
|
β | β |
|
| ||||
| Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and related neoplasms[36][37] |
|
|
NL or β | β | N/A | β or β | β or β | β or β |
|
β | β |
with dysplasia |
| ||
| Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm[38][39][40][41] |
|
|
NL | β | NL | NL | NL | β | β |
|
| ||||
| Myelodysplastic /myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN) |
Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML)[42] |
|
β | < 20% | NL | β | ββ |
|
β | β |
|
| |||
| Atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML), BCR-ABL1-[45][46] |
|
|
β | <20% | + | <2% of WBCs | N/A | N/A |
|
β | β |
|
|||
| Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML)[47][48] |
|
β | β | N/A | N/A | N/A | β | β | β |
|
| ||||
| MDS/MPN with ring sideroblasts and thrombocytosis (MDS/MPN-RS-T)[49][50][51] |
|
|
NL or β | NL | – | NL | N/A | N/A | β | β |
|
| |||
| T-lymphoblastic leukemia/ lymphoma |
T-lymphoblastic leukemia/ lymphoma[52][53][54] |
|
β | >25% blasts (Leukemia) | Β± | β or β | β or β | β or β |
|
β | β |
|
|||
| Provisional entity: Natural killer (NK) cell lymphoblastic leukemia/lymph[55] |
|
β | β | Β± | β or β | β or β | β or β |
|
β | β |
|
||||
| Provisional entity: Early T-cell precursor lymphoblastic leukemia[56][57] |
|
β | β | Β± | β or β | β or β | β or β |
|
β | β |
|
| |||
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