Bicytopenia is defined as a reduction in any two of the three major peripheral blood cell lineages. It may result from a broad array of causes, including infectious, nutritional, hematological, and systemic disorders. Early identification of the underlying cause is important to guide appropriate management, distinguishing transient, reversible conditions from more serious marrow or systemic diseases.
The study aimed to characterize the etiological spectrum, hematological profile, clinical presentation, and patterns of bicytopenia among patients presenting to a tertiary care center. The authors sought to relate types of bicytopenia to underlying diagnoses to inform diagnostic evaluation and management priorities.
This was a hospital-based observational analysis that included 110 adult patients diagnosed with bicytopenia. Patients were categorized by age, gender, hematological parameters, clinical symptoms, etiologies, and the specific type of bicytopenia. Statistical evaluation of associations employed the Chi-square test. The study population, diagnostic criteria beyond the definition of bicytopenia, and specific laboratory methods were not detailed further in the abstract.
The cohort comprised 110 adults with a mean age of 41.5 ± 15.42 years. There was a slight female predominance, with 54.5% of patients being female. Other demographic details such as comorbidities, inpatient versus outpatient status, or geographic/ethnic breakdown were not reported in the abstract.
Among the hematologic presentations, the most frequent pattern was leukopenia with thrombocytopenia, observed in 37.3% of patients. Fever was the commonest presenting symptom, occurring in 48.2% of cases. The abstract does not report additional laboratory values such as hemoglobin distributions, reticulocyte counts, peripheral smear features, or bone marrow findings; those details would be in the full text if available.
In this cohort, the leading identified causes were viral fever (including dengue) in 23.6%, nutritional deficiency in 13.6%, and sepsis in 11.8%. The study highlights that etiologies ranged from transient infectious processes to important hematological disorders, indicating that bicytopenia is a heterogeneous clinical finding requiring targeted evaluation.
The authors report a statistically significant association between the type of bicytopenia and the underlying etiology (P < 0.0001) using the Chi-square test. This suggests that certain bicytopenia patterns—for example, leukopenia with thrombocytopenia—are more likely to be linked with specific causes in this population. Specific cross-tabulations or effect sizes were not provided in the abstract.
The findings underscore that, in a tertiary-care setting represented by this study, infectious causes—particularly viral infections such as dengue—and nutritional deficiencies were major contributors to bicytopenia. This emphasizes the need to include infectious workup (history, relevant serologies, cultures where indicated) and nutritional assessment in the initial evaluation of patients with bicytopenia.
Simultaneously, because bicytopenia can reflect primary hematological disease, clinicians should maintain a differential that includes bone marrow disorders and systemic conditions. The significant relationship between bicytopenia type and etiology supports using hematological patterns to prioritize investigations, although the abstract does not provide an algorithm or specific predictive values.
In this observational series of 110 adults, bicytopenia displayed a wide etiological range, with viral infections and nutritional deficiencies accounting for a substantial proportion of cases and sepsis also contributing. The commonest hematologic presentation was leukopenia with thrombocytopenia, and fever was the most frequent symptom.
The authors conclude that careful interpretation of hematological patterns together with systematic clinical evaluation can facilitate early identification of the underlying cause and allow timely, appropriate management. The abstract does not report detailed diagnostic pathways, management protocols, or patient outcomes; those elements would require consultation of the full article.
Keywords: Bicytopenia, viral fever, nutritional deficiency, sepsis, leukopenia with thrombocytopenia.