Leukostasis-Related Fatal Cardiopulmonary Arrest as Initial Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Presentation

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a BCR-ABL1-positive myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN), which is usually diagnosed in chronic phase (CP-CML) and is considered curable in the era of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Leukostasis is an urgent complication more often of acute and less often of chronic leukemias. Regarding CML, leukostatic symptoms are uncommon in CP and in newly diagnosed patients, while being more often in advanced disease stages (accelerated or blastic phase). Leukostasis in CML is mostly presented with neurologic or respiratory symptoms. We present here a case of newly diagnosed CML in CP, which initially presented with leukostasis-related fatal cardiopulmonary arrest in a 59-year-old woman. J Med Cases. 2018;9(3):77-82 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc2993w