Bony Lesions in Pediatric Acute Leukemia: Pictorial Essay

Acute leukemia is the most common malignancy in childhood, which mainly involves children less than 15 years of age. The growing skeleton is the main site of involvement in children. Leukemic cells proliferate within the massive red bone marrow in children. So besides the pallor, petechia, purpura and ecchymosis in the skin and mucosal surfaces, bone pain and other bony lesions are other manifestations of leukemia. On the other hand, bony lesions are more prevalent in children than adults with no poor prognosis in comparison to patients without bone lesions. These bony lesions may precede other laboratory tests so familiarity with these presentations is very important for earlier diagnosis. In this pictorial essay, we tried to gather the most common bony lesions that may be seen in acute leukemia in different cases admitted to our hospital with general malaise and localized tenderness and discomfort leading us to perform plain X-ray for further evaluation. Finding these bony lesions helps clinicians to reach the diagnosis quickly. These findings include metaphyseal lucent band and erosion, periosteal reaction, small lucent bone lesion and permeative appearance, reduced bone density and collapsed vertebra.