Diagnostic tests
The basic diagnostic tests include:
1.Blood cell counts: Blood will be drawn from the vein of the patient to examine
the abnormal blood cell.
2.Bone marrow examination: The child is first put to sleep with a sedative and
local anaesthetics will be injected. The doctor will then use a syringe to aspirate
a small amount of bone marrow from the pelvic bone. The diagnosis is leukaemia
if there is a large number of cancerous white cells in the bone marrow.
3.Cerebrospinal fluid test: A lumbar puncture will be performed to examine if
the leukaemia cells have spread to the central nervous system.
4.X-ray: e.g. chest X-ray.
5.Electrolytes, uric acid, renal function and liver function tests.