Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: patients, changes in the ALC may be difficult to interpret without B-cell enumeration.At the MBL/CLL cutoff point, we observed some fluctuation in the level of the clone.The definition of a B cell is also of interest.The 2 antigens most commonly used for B-cell identification are CD19 and CD20, but a specific definition is not given in either the CLL Guidelines 3 or the MBL criteria.4 In CLL, CD20 is typically expressed at lower copy number compared with normal B cells. 9 In theory, a B-cell count increases laboratory measurement uncertainty, as 2 measurands (ALC and percentage B cells) are required.10 In practice, this effect is minor.Furthermore, we observed that using CD19 or CD20 made a negligible difference in the definition of MBL versus CLL in our patient cohort (Table 1).CD19 appears more accurate for normal B-cell enumeration, but the weakened expression of CD20 facilitates detection of small clones.Finally, a definition that is consistent and complementary between CLL and MBL is essential.The new Guidelines eliminate the overlap that had developed and provide uniformity for future study.
Source: Blood
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics (clinical)
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2043727909