Background: Bone marrow aspiration (BMA) and Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) are very useful procedures for the diagnosis of haematological and non haematological malignancies, typing of anemia, pyrexia of unknown origin and infective diseases.

Objectives: To evaluate and compare the BMA and BMB findings in various haematological disorders.

Subjects: A total of 180 cases diagnosed with various haematological disorders in which bone marrow examination was done by using both the methods i.e. bone marrow aspiration and bone marrow biopsy were taken.

Results: Out of 180 cases, 158 cases were diagnosed on BMA and 168 cases on BMB. Rests of the 22 cases were dry tap on BMA and 12 cases were inadequate on BMB. Age ranged from 1.6 years to 80 years with the mean age of 36.30 years. Diagnostic accuracy of BMA was 100% in megaloblastic anaemia, acute leukaemia, metastatic marrow and ITP. BMB provided diagnosis in additional 6 cases of granulomatous lesion, 3 cases of MPD and 2 cases of LPD. Positive correlation between BMA and BMB was found to be 74.44%. The highest correlation was seen in reactive/leukemoid reaction (100%) and metastatic marrow (100%), correlation was least with aplastic anaemia (30.77%). No positive correlation was found in ITP and granulomatous lesion on BMA and BMB. Dry tap/ haemodilution on BMA were inconclusive in 22 cases (12.22%) maximum being for aplastic anaemia (8/13) cases. In all these cases BMB was diagnostic.

Conclusion: The utility and efficacy of BMB as compared to BMA have been discussed and debated. The answer, though complicated remains essentially the same. Both procedures complement each other.

Study Design: It was a cross sectional study conducted after approval from institutional ethical committee in the Department of Pathology, Sri Aurobindo Medical College and PG Institute, Indore.

Keywords: Bone Marrow Aspiration & Bone Marrow Biopsy.