Diagnosis of Nodal Myeloid Blast Crisis on Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is known to undergo the blast crisis in the  patients. It  manifests as acute leukemia or local blast crisis generally described as extramedullary hematopoiesis with blast. Lymph nodal blast crisis is infrequently encountered in cases of CML. It has rarely been diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).  Here is one such rare case reported as nodal blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia on FNAC.  This particular case has many peculiarities. The patient was not a previously known case of CML. The lymphadenopathy was of acute onset and aspiration FNAC of lymph node played a vital role in offering the clue for the diagnosis that excluded the other causes of lymphadenopathy in 45 year old male.