The diagnosis of leukemia must be very cautious. Clinical manifestations, physical examination and laboratory tests must be combined to make a final conclusion.

In the article "What are the manifestations of leukemia", it is mentioned that the common manifestations of leukemia include anemia, bleeding, infection, fever, pain in the chest and lower limbs, as well as abdominal distension, abdominal pain, etc.; physical examination will reveal that the child is pale. , lack of energy, lymph nodes, hepatosplenomegaly, etc., but these are not unique symptoms and manifestations of leukemia. Therefore, doctors will also ask parents to take their children for some laboratory tests:

1. Routine blood test: Take a small amount of blood from your finger or earlobe to detect the number of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, and Classify white blood cells. Under normal circumstances, immature blood cells (immature cells for short) should not appear in peripheral blood. However, in leukemia, these immature cells cannot mature in the bone marrow and are released into the peripheral blood. Therefore, immature cells can be seen in routine blood tests. Sometimes leukemia is discovered when a child's blood test reveals immature cells during a physical examination at school or kindergarten, which attracts the parents' attention.

2. Routine bone marrow examination: If leukemia is suspected, a bone marrow puncture examination must be performed to count and classify various types of cells in the bone marrow. Under normal circumstances, the number of immature cells in the bone marrow does not exceed 5%, but in leukemia, the number of immature cells increases to more than 30%. Especially in children with acute leukemia, the number of bone marrow blast cells can be as high as 80-100%.

Bone marrow examination is the most powerful evidence for diagnosing leukemia. If a significant increase in blast cells in the bone marrow is found, combined with clinical manifestations and physical examination, leukemia is not difficult to diagnose. However, there are many types of leukemia, and the treatments for different types of leukemia are also different. Therefore, after the child is hospitalized, the following further examinations must be done:

1. Immune typing examination: This examination generally requires aspirating about 2 ml of bone marrow, and then using a method called "monoclonal "Antibody" reagents are used to identify and classify leukemia cell types.

2. Cytogenetic examination: This examination also requires aspiration of about 2 ml of bone marrow to understand the nature of leukemia cells? Are there any chromosomal abnormalities? Leukemias with chromosomal abnormalities tend to have a worse prognosis than leukemias without chromosomal abnormalities.

3. Cerebrospinal fluid examination: This examination involves taking a little cerebrospinal fluid from the spinal cavity of the child's waist for testing to see if the child's brain and spinal cord system (i.e., the central nervous system) are invaded by leukemia cells. If it is affected, it is medically called "central nervous system leukemia."

In addition, there are also Laboratory tests are used to understand whether the main organs of the child's body are functioning normally, whether there is invasion of leukemia cells, and to prepare for the next step of using chemotherapy drugs.