The use of fluorodeoxyuridine synchronization for cytogenetic investigation of acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The role of fluorodeoxyuridine (FUdR) synchronization in cytogenetic analysis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was investigated using samples of bone marrow (BM) (10 patients) and peripheral blood (PB) (2 patients), prepared for chromosome analysis using both 24-hour unstimulated cultures (24-hr) and cultures synchronized with FUdR. The mitotic index (MI) in FUdR was lower than in 24-hr in 8 of 10 BM and 2 of 2 PB cultures. The quality of the metaphases was the same in both cultures. The FUdR had a lower percentage of abnormal cells than the 24-hr in the 7 BM samples with a normal/abnormal population and sufficient analyzable cells in each culture for comparison (p less than 0.05). PB FUdR cultures yielded only normal cells. We conclude that FUdR cultures are inferior to 24-hr cultures for chromosome analysis in ALL.