Background: Anemia influences approximately 20 million people around the world mostly women and children.  Megaloblastic  anemia,  a  common  cause  of  anemia  caused  by  ineffective erythropoiesis, commonly manifested by peripheral blood cytopenia.

Objective: To find out the frequency of megaloblastic anemia in pediatric patients presenting with peripheral cytopenia

Methodology: This descriptive cross sectional study was carried out at the Department of Hematology, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar from 19 Feb, 2019 to 19 Aug, 2019. All the participants were selected based on inclusion criteria. Hematological profile was recorded for the entire participant. Automated hematology analyzer was used for all the blood counts. Data analysis was carried out by using IBM SPSS version 23.  

Results: Totally 175 patients were enrolled in our study. There were 117 (66.85%) males patients whereas female patients were 58 (33.14%). Based on age distribution, 65 (37.14%) patients were recorded in 5-10 years age group, 110 (62.85%) patients were recorded in 11-15 years age group. Mean and SDs for age was recorded as 12.3+3.19. Megaloblastic anemia was observed in 23 (13.14%) patients.  

Conclusion: Our study concludes that megaloblastic anemia is highly prevalent in pediatric patients presenting with peripheral cytopenia. Pancytopenia is a common condition in our pediatric patients caused by failure of bone marrow and leukemia.

Keywords:  Anemia, Bone Marrow, Megaloblastic, Pancytopenia