Hypofibrinogenaemia as a Cause of Bleeding in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia

Hypofibrinogenaemia is an occasional, well-documented complication of acute leukaemia (Rosenthal, 1963; Didisheim et al., 1964; Hirsh et al., 1967; Rand et al., 1969; Goldman, 1974) and is seen most characteristically in patients with acute promyelo-cytic leukaemia. Excessive fibrinolysis was originally postulated as a cause of hypofibrinogenaemia but recent evidence has shown that fibrinogen utilization is secondarily increased as part of the process of disseminated intravascular coagulation. We report here the first example of hypofibrinogenaemia secondary to chronic myeloid leukaemia.