[Immunophenotyping of acute leukemias: diagnostic and pronostic utility in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire]

Flow cytometry is nowadays the first-line method for immunophenotypic identification of blast cells but is not so usual in limited-resources countries. We have investigated on the usefulness of this tool in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Bone marrow sample from 13 patients with acute leukemia identified by cytology and cytochemical analysis was immunophenotyped by using monoclonal antibodies directed to: T lymphoid cells (CD3, CD5, CD7); B lymphoid cells (CD10, CD19, CD20, CD22, HLA-DR) and myeloid cells (CD13, CD33). Immunophenotyping allowed us to confirm the diagnosis of 6 de novo acute leukemias (2 acute myeloid leukaemias, 4 acute lymphoid leukemias) and 7 acute leukaemias resulting from chronic myeloid leukaemias. Immunophenotyping also characterizes the atypical/aberrant lineage essential for the prognosis: 2 biphenotypic acute leukemias (myeloid/lymphoid T) were identified. Our results suggest that flow cytometry may be a useful additional tool to identify the specific leukemic cell, to make a better classification as well as a prognosis evaluation of patients with acute leukemias.