Abstract
The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of flow cytometric immunophenotyping (FCI) as a rapid diagnostic tool for pediatric malignancy in serous cavity effusions (SCEs). FCI results for 103 SCEs in a pediatric population were compared with retrospective clinical outcomes (RCOs). Among 41 patients assessed as having malignancies by RCO, 36 patients were diagnosed with lymphoma (n =25), acute myeloid leukemia (n =2), neuroblastoma (n =8) and retinoblastoma (n =1) by FCI, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of FCI for detecting neoplastic cells were 87.8% and 98.4%, respectively. The concordance of FCI data with final diagnoses of the patients was 94.2%. FCI data for lymphoma was concordant with the final diagnosis in 89.3% of cases. When Hodgkin lymphoma was excluded, the overall correlation increased to 96.1%. FCI is a useful tool for rapid and reliable diagnosis of pediatric non-Hodgkin lymphoma in SCE samples and also to suggest the presence of non-lymphoid malignancies, especially neuroblastoma.
Published Version
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