Test
From haematologyetc.co.uk
:Typical HCL morphology, these medium sized cells have a distinctive "partly open" chromatin in an oval or bean-shaped nucleus, cytoplasm is blue/grey with typical hairy projections
Background to flow cytometric diagnosis
HCL expresses typical and unusual markers that together with morphology can allow diagnosed with some confidence using flow cytometry.
However, no marker is unique to HCL and unusual marker patterns can lead to diagnostic difficulty. If this is the case then the atypical features should be reported, since histopathology and molecular testing can each be used to further evaluate these cases.
Immunophenotype of CLL | |||
---|---|---|---|
Major markers useful in CLL diagnosis | |||
Marker | Freq | Level | Comment |
κ/λ | Stg | Expect strong restricted expression of κ or λ | |
FMC7 | Stg | Typically this marker is strongly expressed | |
CD5 | - | Infrequent but reported in some cases | |
CD10 | - | Infrequently expressed in typica; CLL | |
CD11C | Stg | Strong expression of CD11c is typical of HCL | |
CD19 | - | Expression is expected and may be strong in HCL | |
CD20 | Stg | Expression is expected, and typically strong | |
CD23 | - | Expression of CD23 is infrequent in HCL | |
CD25 | wk | Expressed by many cases of CLL but characteristically weak | |
CD38 | wk | Expressed by some cases of CLL, typically weak | |
CD43 | - | Similar to CD200, may be helpful in some cases | |
CD79b | wk | Expression is expected, but characteristically weak | |
CD103 | - | Not expressed by CLL, consider HCL if found | |
CD138 | - | Predominantly expressed at plasma cell differentiation | |
CD200 | - | Characteristically positive in CLL and negative in MCL |
Key to table:
Markers most useful in initial diagnosis are underlined in blue text
Key to colour code for expression frequency Click for link
Key to expression strength code and use Click for link