Assessing glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and its relationship to disease activity.

Abstract

Objective: Glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity of red blood cells (RBC) may be helpful as a prognostic factor and a probable predictive indicator of disease activity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Materials and methods: This cross-sectional, case-control study was performed on almost 133 pediatric ALL cases from 2016 to 2020 in an oncology hospital. Patients with a history of blood transfusion within the last three months, acute hemolytic crisis, any other type of enzyme deficiency like pyruvate kinase and hexokinase, and chronic liver disease were excluded. The G6PD activity in RBC was measured using the spectrophotometric method. In addition, the G6PD activity was assessed in 133 normal individuals as a control group. According to the kit, the G6PD <1.5 IU/g of Hb level was recognized as severely deficient. The correlation of G6PD activity with disease activity and other parameters in ALL patients was determined using the Pearson correlation test. Data were measured by an independent t-test and a one-way ANOVA test.

Results: The mean G6PD activity of RBC in the control (n=133) and patient group (n=128) was 9.1±2.08 IU/g of Hb and 11.12±3.8 IU/g of Hb, P<0.001, respectively. There was a significant difference in the G6PD activity of RBC in patients' blastic and non-blastic phases, t (128) =-2.48, P=0.014.

Conclusion: The G6PD activity of RBC is higher in childhood ALL than in the control group. Moreover, the G6PD activity of RBC in the blastic phase of leukemia was higher than that of patients in remission.