A. Kreft et al., IMMUNOPHENOTYPE OF HAIRY-CELL LEUKEMIA AFTER COLD POLYMERIZATION OF METHYL-METHACRYLATE EMBEDDINGS FROM 50 DIAGNOSTIC BONE-MARROW BIOPSIES, Histopathology, 30(2), 1997, pp. 145-151
Hairy-cell leukaemia may be difficult to diagnose in bone marrow biops
ies, especially in the early stages or in its residum after complete c
linical remission. To consider the impact of published data on immuno-
phenotyping hairy-cell leukaemias, a total of 50 diagnostic biopsies w
ere systematically analysed with a panel of eight antibodies and compa
red with cases of chronic lymphatic leukaemia (CLL), 20 follicular cen
tre lymphomas, 20 lympho-plasmacytoid immunocytomas, 10 small-cell T-c
ell non-Hodgltin lymphomas and 20 cases of benign nodular lymphatic hy
perplasia. The panel of eight antibodies comprised DBA44, CD45, CD20,
CD45R, CD45RO, CD43 and the CD68 antibodies KP1 and Ki-MlP. The hairy-
cell leukaemias were staged histologically into four categories of bon
e marrow infiltration, DBA44 reacted positively in 47/50 cases, CD45 a
nd the B-cell markers CD20 and CD45R reacted in 49/50 and 43/50 cases,
respectively. One CD68 marker,KP1. was positive in 38/50 cases but th
e other-Ki-M1P - only in 1/50 cases, Chronic lymphatic leukaemia cases
, the other B-cell NHLs and lymphatic hyperplasias showed strong posit
ivity for CD20 and CD45R, but only the immunocytomas reacted with DBA4
4 in 7/20 cases. The T-cell NHLs and hyperplasias showed a strong posi
tivity for the T-cell markers CD45RO and CD43. The CD68-marker Ki-M1P
revealed a high specificity, since it was negative in all NHLs and pos
itive only in one hairy-cell leukaemia, Methyl-methacrylate embedding
of bone marrow biopsies under cold polymerization produces a high qual
ity of histo- and cytomorphology, resulting in greater diagnostic reli
ability and the detection of low-stage infiltration of hairy-cell leuk
aemia, DBA44 appears as a highly specific antibody to mark hairy-cells
since only immunocytomas reacted positively in a few cases, A small p
anel of antibodies including DBA44, CD20, CD45R and Ki-M1P may serve t
o distinguish small-cell NHL from hairy-cell leukaemia even at an earl
y stage or when there are minimal residual tumour cells.