Guidelines for the use of flow cell sorting in diagnosis and monitoring of acute leukemia

Abstract

Flow cell sorting is an advanced laboratory technique that combines the analytical capabilities of flow cytometry with the ability to isolate pure cell populations from heterogeneous samples. It has tremendous potential both for fundamental research and laboratory diagnosis. For example, the combination of cell sorting and molecular genetic studies can be used to clarify ambiguous results of acute leukemia immunophenotyping obtained both at diagnosis and during minimal residual disease monitoring. These guidelines are based on years of experience in incorporating cell sorting into the diagnostic and monitoring processes at the Leukemia Immunophenotyping Laboratory of the Dmitry Rogachev National Medical Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology. They include methods used for the confirmation of flow cytometry data depending on the type of leukemia, the stage of a flow cytometry assay and previous therapy. They also describe cell sorting algorithms for disease diagnosis and the specifics of sample preparation for cell sorting in different molecular genetic studies.