Infectious complications associated with hairy cell leukemia.

Infectious complications in 47 patients with hairy cell leukemia were reviewed. Seventeen patients had culture-documented infections, 13 patients had significant clinical infections not documented by culture, and 17 had no serious infections. In the documented group, 64% of the infections were pyogenic and 36% were nonpyogenic. Patients in the two groups with serious infections had an initial median granulocyte count that was significantly lower than the granulocyte count in the uninfected group (P less than 0.05). Ten of the 17 patients with documented infections died, all as a result of their infections. In the uninfected group, two of 17 patients died, both with progressive disease. Four (9%) of the 47 patients had disseminated atypical mycobacterial disease; two of these patients are alive and asymptomatic two and three years, respectively, after the diagnosis of infection.