Elevated common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen expression in pediatric immune thrombocytopenic purpura

Bone marrow examination is often performed in thrombocytopenic children to distinguish immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) from acute leukemia. We describe a patient with thrombocytopenia and 50% common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen (CALLA) positivity in his marrow who was subsequently shown to have ITP. CALLA (CD10) is a surface antigen found in early B-lymphocytes and is elevated in most cases of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This case prompted us to prospectively study the frequency of immature lymphocyte populations in children with ITP. Fourteen patients with acute ITP and five with other conditions were studied. The two groups were comparable with respect to age: ITP mean, 4.3 (range 0.3-15.5) years; control mean, 5.8 (0.6-13.8) years. The ITP group had a significantly higher percentage of CD10 positive bone marrow lymphocytes (p = 0.007). Five of the 10 patients younger than 4 years of age in the ITP group had CD10 levels of greater than 30%, which is in the leukemic range, whereas none of the control patients had a CD10 levels of greater than 17% (p = 0.003). There was good correlation between CD10 positivity and B4 positivity indicating that both of these markers arise from the same population of immature B-lymphocytes. None of the ITP patients who were older than 4 years had a CD10 level of greater than 30%. We conclude that it is common to have an increase in the proportion of immature lymphocytes in the marrow of young children with ITP. The cause of this increase in CD10 positive cells is unknown.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)