Clinical Utility of Flow Cytometry Immunophenotyping in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

INTRUDUCTION: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous group of clonal disease of hematopoietic tissue, characterized by proliferation of abnormal myeloid progenitor cells, suppressing the normal hematopoietic activity and constituting a great diagnostic challenge. With the advent of immunophenotyping by flow cytometry, the diagnosis of these neoplasms became more faithful, facilitating the treatment and follow-up of the patients. METHODS: In this study a flow cytometric immunophenotyping study was performed in bone marrow aspirate and / or peripheral blood samples from 38 patients with AML, using a panel of monoclonal antibodies specific for acute leukemias, also investigating clinical, laboratory and demographic data of these patients. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Of the 38 subjects studied, 23 were male and 15 females. In relation to the age, we found a higher number of cases in adult patients. According to clinical data, splenomegaly and hepatomegaly were present in most cases. The immunophenotyping demonstrated a characteristic profile of AML with expression of CD13 and CD33 in all cases and CD34 and CD117 in most cases. The CD14 was reactive in monocytic leukemia (M4 and M5-AML). Were observed negativity for lymphoid antigens CD19, CD10 and CD3 and positivity to CD7, CD56 and CD2, present in 10, 5 and one cases respectively. Regarding cytomorphology, there was a direct correlation with FAB classification, with the prevalence of type myeloid-monocytic (AML-M4). CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate the importance of immunophenotyping in the differential diagnosis of AML and monitoring of these neoplasms.