Patients may show any combination of these symptoms. Some may be more obvious than others. Initial symptoms may appear to be nothing worse than excessive tiredness or a bout of flu. Diagnosis A general practitioner who sees a patient with aplastic anaemia may suspect the possibility of leukaemia. The diagnosis of aplastic anaemia cannot be made clinically or based on the blood count alone.
Many conditions can lead to a reduced blood count and similar signs and symptoms.
The initial diagnosis, based on the appearance of the blood film and before the bone marrow has been examined, may be leukaemia. This is a test which measures the different types of blood cell and the haemoglobin level. A patient with aplastic anaemia will have a low red count and so be anaemic. The white count and platelet count are usually also low. The full blood count is done on a machine and the results give a strong indication that the patient has marrow failure although it cannot show the cause of the condition.