| SUSAN LECLAIR |
Heinz, as you already know, the issue with
immunophenotyping is that the normal essential "balance" of diverse
cells is overwhelmed by the presence of a single clone of cells. So -
although mathematically grossly oversimplified - think of a normal
immunophenotyping as equal percentages present on all cells.
The earliest cell from which all blood cells come is the pluripotential
stem cell. It is positive for CD34. The absence of CD34 means that there
are no extraordinarily immature cells present in your bloodstream. Once
this cell becomes committed to the lymphocyte line, the cell expressed
such markers as CD43 and CD38. These are immature cells that have not
yet decided if they will grows up to be T cells or B cells so they have
the characteristics of both. Once a lymphocyte is committed to becoming
either a B cell or a T cell, they will lose the unchosen identifiers and
express only a single set of markers.
Some makers are called "pan" markers for they are found on every cell
regardless of age or functionality that is in that family (T or B) . So
let's look at the panel for B cells.
CD12 and CD20 are positive in at least 85%of all of the lymphocytes -
indicating a clone of B cells is present. Of those cells, CD10 is
essentially negative and this means that these cells are not immature
since CD10 is found on lymphoblasts. Mature B cells can be activated or
resting. The markers for resting cells (FMC7, CD38, CD79b) suggest that
these are not fully mature and are stimulated in some fashion. CD23
positivity means that these cells seem to be making a lot of the large
portion of a typical antibody (Fc). They also seem to be making more of
the lambda style light chain that is used in antibody formation than
they are the kappa chain. Again they should be in some sort of balance.
The specific markers for T cells (CD2, CD4, CD8) are all very low yet
the CD5 is as high as the pan B cell markers. And the combined marker of
CD5/CD19 is also quite high. The presence of CD5 and CD19 in a B cell
population occurs only in the most common of the CLL presentations.
So - you have a clone of B cells which has some abnormal Tcell markers
that they won't give up and a peripheral blood picture of lots of
lymphocytes that are apparently quite fragile since there are lots of
smudge cells. The conclusions is B cell CLL.
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