Abstract
Objective: To assess the indications and different pathologies of bone marrow aspirates and to evaluate and analyze a considerable percentage of dry blood taps and normal bone marrow aspirates.
Methods: A retrospective study. All request procedures and reports of bone marrow examinations between January 2001 and December 2008 were reviewed.
Results: There were (2008) bone marrow aspirations performed during the period, 1258 (63%) of the marrow aspirations were non-malignant and 750 (37%) of the samples were found to be malignant. In 216 cases (11%) marrow aspirates were found to be non-conclusive. There were 154 (8%) full blood tap a recent full blood picture performed at the time of the bone marrow examination. The commonest indication was for investigation of thrombocytopenia and the most frequent diagnosis encountered was acute leukemia.
Conclusion: The bone marrow aspiration and trephine biopsy (scientific speaking) are complementary and give a higher diagnostic yield when both are available for a patient. This study also reveals that the failure rate of obtaining either of the samples is not significant and this issue needs to be addressed appropriately.
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