Study On Clinical and Etiopathological Profile of Pancytopenia in Children Aged 1-18 Years: An Observational Analysis

Background: An decrease in all three blood components; leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and anemia below the normal level is known as pancytopenia. This study is an attempt to fill the lacunae regarding the information about pancytopenia in pediatric patients. The study aimed to study the clinical and etiopathological profile of pancytopenia in children aged 1–18 years. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was to find out more about the etiopathological profile, clinical characteristics, and demographics of pediatric pancytopenia. The study was conducted from June 2025 to November 2025 with 65 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were admitted to the pediatric department of Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, and were between the ages of 1 and 18. IBM’s Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23 was used for the statistical study. Results: The majority of cases (55%) out of 65 patients were in the 1–6 years age group. Our study revealed male predominance over females with male-to-female ratio of 2.09:1, mostly belonging to rural areas. The most common presenting complaint was easy fatigue in (90%) of patients followed by fever (54%). The most common physical finding was pallor (100%), followed by splenomegaly and pedal edema (38%) and (18%), respectively. Bone marrow cellularity shows hypocellular marrow (62%), hypercellular (31%), and normocellular (7%). Peripheral smears of most of the patients showed normocytic normochromic (34%), followed by macrocytic hypochromic (30%). Regarding etiology megaloblastic anemia (30%) was reported as the most common cause of pancytopenia followed by malignancies (30%) including myelodysplastic syndrome (9%), multiple myeloma (3%), acute lymphocytic leukemia (9%), and acute myeloid leukemia (9%) followed by aplastic anemia (14%) and sepsis (8%). The study also shows other rare causes of pancytopenia such as disseminated tuberculosis (6%), malaria (9%), and dengue (3%). Conclusion: According to the present study, megaloblastic anemia, malignancies, and aplastic anemia are the most frequent nutritional causes of pancytopenia.