A context-aware interpretive framework for lymphocyte immunophenotyping by flow cytometry

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Clinical Diagnostics
• Cell Biology

Background:

• Flow cytometry immunophenotyping is crucial in immunology but interpretation of lymphocyte results is often incomplete.
• Challenges arise when interpreting normal lymphocyte counts under non-physiological conditions due to implicit assumptions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a structured framework for interpreting lymphocyte immunophenotyping results.
• To extend harmonization beyond technical standardization to include biological and clinical interpretation.

Main Methods:

• Development of five foundational guidelines for interpreting lymphocyte immunophenotypic enumeration.
• Articulation of principles implicitly used in expert practice.

Main Results:

• Proposed guidelines address non-equivalence of metrics, context-dependent relevance, compartment-specific meaning, assay constraints, and analytical variability.
• The framework supports consistent, context-aware interpretation of lymphocyte immunophenotypes.

Conclusions:

• Explicitly articulating interpretation principles bridges technical and interpretative reproducibility gaps.
• The framework provides a structure for context-aware immunophenotypic interpretation.
• Contributes to a shared conceptual language in immunology and clinical applications.