Immunophenotyic profile of adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Iraq, a one year experience

Abstract

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia accounts for approximately 14% of leukaemia cases in the adults with B linage subtype being more common than T linage subtype. immnophenotyping using the multicolour flow cytometry is an essential tool for diagnosis, classification as well as treatment guidance and prognosis. Objectives: This study aims to provide an overview of the immunophenotypic profile of adult ALL cases in Iraq, it’s possible link with other characters and also study the frequency of expression of aberrant myeloid antigens in them. Patients and methods: this is a descriptive study included 64 adult patients diagnosed as ALL in haematology unit at Baghdad teaching hospital for the period between May 2014 till May 2015 , immunophenotyping was carried out at the flow cytometry laboratory in the nursing home hospital using 6 coloured (BD-FACS-Canto II System from Becton Dickenson). Results: of the study population 63.7% of the cases were B-ALL and 27.5% were T-ALL, there was no significant difference in respect to age and gender between them. Of the CD markers used both CD10 and CD34 were significantly associated with B-ALL compared to T-ALL (p values 0.002 and 0.003 respectively).aberrant myeloid Ag expression was seen in 43.18% of B-ALL cases and in 52.6% of T-ALL cases with no significant difference however aberrant myeloid Ag expression was significantly associated with CD34 expression with a p value of 00.018. Conclusion: Immunophenotyping retains a crucial place in the work up for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. CD34 was significantly associated with B linage ALL and with aberrant myeloid Ag expression, larger study with clinical evaluation and cytogenetic study is recommended to evaluate the impact of those findings over prognosis.