Peripheral Blood, Acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults. It is a neoplastic proliferation of myeloid precursors in which myeloid blasts replace the marrow, resulting in bone marrow failure, anemia, thrombocytopenia and neutropenia.

This section demonstrates a peripheral blood smear composed mainly of blasts and a decrease in mature granulocytes and monocytes.

To diagnose AML, blasts or blast equivalents should comprise ≥ 20% of nucleated peripheral blood and/or bone marrow cells, and there should be no history of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or AML-defining cytogenetic abnormalities.