Leukemia or, in other words, cancer of the blood and bone marrow is a disease connected to the abnormality of white blood cells. At the initial stage, it can be unnoticed by the patients since the condition implies the growing weakness of one’s body, which can be ascribed to other health issues (Bernard et al., 2017). In the course of the disease’s development, the immune system’s deficiency stemming from the specified dysfunction leads to the emergence of such problems as the inability to fight infections (Bernard et al., 2017). This symptom is easier to reveal, and, therefore, it marks the beginning of the treatment.
This condition is accompanied by other disruptions in the patient’s body, which add to the diagnosis. Thus, since leukemia is a disease characterized by weakness, it correlates with anemia, which is recognized by the general feeling of illness and fatigue due to the low levels of red blood cells (Bernard et al., 2017). It is also connected to thrombocytopenia since this issue implies easy bruising or bleeding because of a shortage of blood platelets (Bernard et al., 2017). The link between leukemia and neutropenia is in the latter’s role in causing the disease as it means the inability of white blood cells to fight infection (Bernard et al., 2017). Therefore, the consideration of these symptoms allows diagnosing leukemia at initial stages, when there are no other signs of the disease.
A child with leukemia, when diagnosed in the hospital setting, can have either a high or low white blood cell count. These lab results indicate that, in the first case, the patient has many cells which do not protect from infection, whereas in the second situation, the problem is bleeding and bruising due to a shortage of blood platelets (Bernard et al., 2017). They allow specialists to choose the proper treatment depending on the type of leukemia.
Reference
Bernard, S. C., Abdelsamad, E. H., Johnson, P. A., Chapman, D. L., & Parvathaneni, M. (2017). Pediatric leukemia: Diagnosis to treatment – A Review. Journal of Cancer Clinical Trials, 2 (2), 1-3. Web.