Affiliations: Laboratoire d'Immunologie Cellulaire, Centre National
de Transfusion Sanguine, Tunis, Tunisia | Service d'H\'ematologie Clinique, H\^opital Farhat
Hached, Sousse, Tunisia
Abstract: The precision of immunological characterization of leukemias was
improved by a certain number of technical innovations, particularly hybridoma
production and standardization, resulting in monoclonal antibodies and
definition of recognised cellular antigens (designated by CD: Cluster of
Differentiation). The aim of this work was to determine the immunophenotyping profile
of patients with leukemia, by means of a flow cytometric method: 66 blood
samples coming from leukemic persons in the Sahel region were studied by flow
cytometry, using about thirty monoclonal antibodies all marked with a
fluorochrome, in one or two colour systems to assess their distribution
according to type (lymphoid B or T / myeloid) and age, and to search for
possible co-expressions of markers of different lineages. The marked preponderance of childhood B-ALL in our series is, at
least partly, attributable to the age distribution of the Tunisian population.
In agreement with studies from other countries, the majority of AML cases
occurred among adults. A high proportion of AML cases in our series
co-expressed markers of other lineages. Overall, accurate classification of
acute leukemias was possible from a simple peripheral blood sample in 62 of 66
cases (93.9%).
