Epidemiology of the myeloproliferative disorders: essential thrombocythaemia, polycythaemia vera and idiopathic myelofibrosis

As to the epidemiology of myeloproliferative disorders (MPD) very little so lid information is available in the literature. The present work attempted to study the incidence of MPD in the city of Goteborg, Sweden during a peri od of ten years. Therefore, retrospectively we assessed the number of subje cts afflicted with polycythaemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythaemia (ET) and idiopathic myelofibrosis (IM) over the study period of 1983-1992. The yearly calculated incidence for PV was 2.8 per 100 000 population. For ET a nd IM the corresponding figures were 1.5 and 0.4, respectively. The results for PV demonstrated the highest incidence rate reported in literature so f ar. As to ET and IM our results largely agree with what has been reported p reviously in the literature. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales E lsevier SAS.