Bone marrow findings inpatients with pulmonary tuberculosis

Abstract

The cytology and culture of bone marrow aspirate in sixtytwo newly diagnosed patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were studied. The findings were depressed erythroid activity in 69% of the patients, micronormoblastic changes in 18% and megaloblastic changes in 16.6%. Myeloid activity was increased in 65% of the patients. Normal looking plasma cells above 5% was found in 17.7% of the bone marrow aspirates while 12.9% had eosinophilic precursors above 5% in the marrow. None of the marrow smears showed granuloma formation or caseation necrosis. The bone marrow cultures yielded no growth of Mycobaterium tuberculosis while stainable iron in the marrow was found to be low or negative in 88.8% of the patients