ABSTRACT
A total of twenty-nine Iraqi cases diagnosed as Hairy Cell Leukaemia [HCL] in the 3 between 1985-1992 at Baghdad Teaching Hospital were studied. They had ages ranging from 29 to 80 years [median of 50 years] with MF ratio of 5:1 The main clinical features at presentation included constitutional symptoms [86 pyrexia [37.9%]. weight loss [20.7%], bleeding tendency [13.8%] palpable sp1enomegaly [89.7%] and palpable hepatomegaly [48.3%]. Haematologically, pancytopenia was seen in the majority [75.9%]. Bone marrow biopsy showed complete replacement pattern in 69%, large confluent areas of infilteration in 27.6% and small multiple areas of infilteration in 3.4%. Cytoloickally, the hairy cells were of the ovoid type in 58.6%. convoluted type in 27.6%, and indented cell type in 13.8%. The application of the clinical staging system of Jansen and Hermans [1982] showed that the majority were at the advanced stage 111[65.5%] at presentation. This study revealed that the clinical and cytological features of HCL in Iraqi patients are similar to those reported from the West, but they appear to be at a more advanced stage at presentation [as shown by prognostic clinical staging and histological infilteration pattern] as compared to their Western counterparts