[Cytometric study of lymph node lymphocytes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and their prognostic...

We carried out a cytomorphological quantification of lymph node lymphocytes in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and evaluated the association between the results of the measurements and the course and evolution of the disease. The obtained results were compared with the results from the same parameters in lymph node lymphocytes in normal subjects. The investigation was performed in 20 patients with CLL and a control group comprising 10 normal subjects. We measured nucleus and cytoplasm surfaces and determined nucleus to cytoplasm ratio of the lymph node lymphocytes. For cytometric analyses we used the astereological method by Kalisnik et al. It has been established that the nucleus surface, cytoplasm surface and the nucleus to cytoplasm ratio of the lymph node lymphocytes were markedly bigger in the patients with CLL than in normal subjects, that the patients in whose leukemic lymphocytes we measured bigger nucleus surface were in late stages of the disease and their response to the therapy was poorer and the course of the disease less encouraging.