TOO EASY TO DIAGNOSE

Key words: Articular pain, Leukaemia, Haemochrome

A 10-year-old girl was admitted with a 3-month history of pain in her knee joints. The pain had been occasional, very short, particularly prominent at night, when she woke up and then fell asleep again. The knee joints were warm, but there was no limpness involved. Only two times had there been a short-lasted bout of fever. The only two significant test results were modest anaemia and a remarkable PCR increase. Our first hypotheses were of growing pains, then acute rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis in progress, and then we ruled them all out. As it was clear later on, the pain hid leukaemia.