Clinical Characteristics, Prognostic Factors and Misdiagnosis of Bone Marrow Necrosis Patients

Abstract

To analyze the clinical characteristics, diagnosis and prognostic factors of bone marrow necrosis (BMN) patients, aim to avoid misdiagnosis, missed diagnosis or delayed treatment. The clinical data of 51 BMN patients treated in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from January 2010 to December 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The types of primary disease, etiology, clinical manifestations, laboratory tests, radiological findings, treatment outcomes and prognostic factors were summrized, and the reasons for misdiagnosis were analyzed. Among 51 BMN patients, the hematologic tumor was detected out in 32 patients; solid tumors caused- BMN was detected out in 14 patients, benign lesions for 5 patients. The time of interval from the appearance of symptoms to the confirmation of BMN was 7 days to 6 months, with a median of 35 days. Misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis occurred in 25.5% of the BMN patients. Anemia was found in all of the 51 BMN patients, fever accounted for 58.8%, systemic bone pain for 52.9%, bleeding for 29.4%, lymphadenectasis for 37.3%, and hepatosplenomegaly for 19.6%. Leukoerythroblastic anemia accounted for 84.3%, bicytopenia for 51.0%, pancytopenia for 25.5%, and monocytopenia for 23.5%. The serologic test revealed no specific results. The first bone marrow aspiration were 38 patients and multi-site puncture were 7 patients. The diagnostic coincidence rate of bone marrow smear was 88.2%. Among 51 BMN patients, 41 patients received bone marrow biopsy, and the diagnostic coincidence rate of bone marrow biopsy was 75.6%. The abnormal signals were found in multiple vertebral bodies by spinal/pelvic MRI scan in 13 BMN patients; PET-CT scan revealed a diffuse pattern of low FDG uptake in the bone marrow in 16 patients, with a local increase in FDG uptake accompanied by bone marrow involvement. For 46 patients with BMN combined with malignancies, among which 35 patients died (76.1%) and the median survival time was 25 days. Among the 32 patients with hematologic tumors, early death occurred in 12 patients, BMN disappeared in 11 out of 20 patients received active chemotherapy for the primary disease, 9 patients died within 1 week to 3 months. Fourteen patients combined with bone marrow metastatic carcinoma died within 2 weeks to 3 months. Focal necrosis disappeared in 4 out of 5 BMN patients secondary to non-malignant diseases after symptomatic supportive treatment and still alived. Multiple logistic regression was performed to analyze factors affecting the prognosis of BMN patients, the result showed that the prognosis of BMN was closely related to the factors of primary disease (benign and malignant). The reasons for misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis were as follows: hidden onset of the primary disease, nonspecific symptoms, insufficient understanding and alertness of the physicians regarding the primary clinical characteristics and hematological abnormalities, and failure to receive multiple sites bone marrow punctures or bone marrow biopsies. BMN usually occurs concomitantly to hematologic tumors and bone marrow metastases from solid tumors. Its prognosis is closely related to the nature and severity of the primary disease and its own severity. In the clinic, BMN should be suspected in patients with severe bone pain, fever, hepatosplenomegaly, hemocytopenia, lymphadenectasis and leukoerythroblastic anemia. Bone marrow puncture at multiple positions and bone marrow biopsy can compensate for each other in the diagnosis of BMN. The combined use of the two methods can improve the diagnostic coincidence rate of BMN, and the positive rate of the etiological diagnosis of BMN.