Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2023; 11(19): 4713-4722
Published online Jul 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i19.4713
Tuberculosis-induced aplastic crisis and atypical lymphocyte expansion in advanced myelodysplastic syndrome: A case report and review of literature
Xiao-Yun Sun, Xiao-Dong Yang, Jia Xu, Nuan-Nuan Xiu, Bo Ju, Xi-Chen Zhao
Xiao-Yun Sun, Xiao-Dong Yang, Jia Xu, Nuan-Nuan Xiu, Bo Ju, Xi-Chen Zhao, Department of Hematology, The Central Hospital of Qingdao West Coast New Area, Qingdao 266555, Shandong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhao XC and Sun XY developed the idea; Sun XY, Yang XD and Xu J analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript; Sun XY, Yang XD, Xu J, Xiu NN and Ju B participated in the treatment; Zhao XC revised the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by The Specialized Scientific Research Fund Projects of The Medical Group of Qingdao University, No. YLJT20201002.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient to publish this case report and any accompanying laboratory data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xi-Chen Zhao, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Hematology, The Central Hospital of Qingdao West Coast New Area, No. 9 Huangpujiang Road, Qingdao 266555, Shandong Province, China. zhaoxichen2003@163.com
Received: April 10, 2023
Peer-review started: April 10, 2023
First decision: May 12, 2023
Revised: May 22, 2023
Accepted: May 31, 2023
Article in press: May 31, 2023
Published online: July 6, 2023
Processing time: 80 Days and 23.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: In patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, bone marrow cellularity and myeloblasts usually increase with disease progression. An advanced myelodysplastic syndrome patient experienced an episode of aplastic crisis. During the aplastic crisis, leukemic cells regressed. The bone marrow was infiltrated with atypical lymphocytes that expressed high frequencies of cluster of differentiation (CD)3, CD5, CD8, CD16, CD56 and CD57. Antituberculosis treatment led to reversion of the aplastic crisis, disappearance of the atypical lymphocytes, increased marrow cellularity and 2 mo of hematological remission, suggesting that disseminated tuberculosis was responsible for the development of aplastic crisis, regression of leukemic cells and activation of CD56+ cells.