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Myeloproliferative diseases: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Myeloproliferative diseases are characterized by a violation of the proliferation of one or more hemopoietic cell lines or connective tissue elements. This group of diseases includes essential thrombocythemia, myelofibrosis, true polycythemia and chronic myelogenous leukemia. Some hematologists also include acute leukemia (especially erythroleukemia) and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria in this group; however, most hematologists believe that these diseases are significantly different, and do not include them in the group under consideration.
Symptoms of the myeloproliferative diseases
Each of these diseases has its own distinctive features or place of origin. Despite some common properties, each disease of this group has rather characteristic clinical manifestations, features of the course and is accompanied by certain laboratory changes. Although the proliferation of a single cell line may dominate the clinical picture, each of the myeloproliferative diseases is usually due to the clonal proliferation of the pluripotent stem cell, which leads to varying degrees of proliferation disorders in the erythrocyte precursors, leukocytes and platelets in the bone marrow. However, this abnormal clone does not produce bone marrow fibroblasts. Myeloproliferative diseases, especially chronic myelogenous leukemia, sometimes lead to the development of acute leukemia. Recently, it has been described that an abnormal tyrosine kinase JAK2 (normal tyrosine kinase participates in the bone marrow response to erythropoietin) can promote the development of true polycythemia, essential thrombocytosis and myelofibrosis.
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