Surface immunoglobulin density in the differential diagnosis of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and leukemic immunocytoma

Abstract Using flow cytometry peripheral blood samples of 37 consecutive patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and 17 consecutive patients with leukemia immunocytoma (IC) were studied in order to determine quantitative differences in the surface immunoglobulin (slg) density. In 8/37 (21.6%) cases of B-CLL and 1/17 (5.9%) cases of IC slg staining remained in the control level. Analysis of slg-positive cases demonstrated a close association between the amount of slg and diagnosis: per case the mean calculated fluorescence intensity for IC lymphocytes was 209.7 arbitrary linear intensity units (IU) (median: 156.4, standard error of the mean (SEM): 53.7) and for B-CLL lymphocytes 10.8 IU (median: 7.3, SEM: 1.1; p p p p p