Medical & Clinical Research

Author(s): Manuel Jr Velasco, Jesus Relos and Ginny Pelobello- De Leon

Hematologic malignancies remained to be a significant contributor in the Global Burden of Disease. Myelodysplastic syndrome is one of the hematologic malignancies and has remained to be underestimated, underreported, and underdiagnosed. It is a group of hematologic malignancies that proves a challenge in diagnosis and is characterized by clonal hematopoiesis, with one or more cytopenias. Data on Prevalence of Myelodysplastic syndrome globally is scarce, moreso, not available in the Philippines. This is the first clinical profile study in Myelodysplastic Syndrome in the Philippines. This 10-year study has shown that 240 patients were diagnosed to have Myelodysplastic syndrome but only 35 had the MDS Fluorescent-in-Situ Hybridization test done. The most common reasons for hematologic referral, chief complaint, signs, cytogenetic test are anemia, low hemoglobin, pallor and fatigue, del7q31 which belongs to the Good risk cytogenetic category respectively. The most common CBC findings were hemoglobin of 8 and above, ANC of above 800 and Platelets of 50 and higher. There was no noted significant difference in the clinical profile of patients with MDS based on FISH study results.