AML -- Acute Myelogenous Leukemia -- What is it?

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a disease of your blood. Your bone marrow makes your blood cells. Your blood cells are basically made up of platelets, white blood cells and red blood cells. If you have AML Leukemia you will not have enough red blood cells and not enough white blood cells.

AML is not inherited and you cannot pass it to someone else. AML is most often caused by some sort of environmental cause such as exposure to benzene and/or radiation.

Other names that you might hear for AML are Acute myeloblastic leukemia, acute myelocytic leukemia and acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

Symptoms

You might see the following symptoms:

• Shortness of Breath
  
• Fatigue (Feeling Sleepy or Tired)
  
• Bruise easily
  
• Cuts heal very slowly or you bleed easily
  
• Repeated infections
  
• Joint Pain
  
• Mild fevers

How do you diagnose AML?

You diagnose this with a blood test. The cells need to be examined under a microscope to see if they are the correct type.