Abstract

CYTOCHEMICAL STAINS BENEFIT IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF CHILDHOOD ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA

Rasha T.Jawad, FICMS*; Lamiaa J. Hammody, FICMS; Arabia K.Sreih, MB.Ch.B.

Abstract

Introduction: Acute leukemia is the most common type of childhood malignancy, acute lymphoblastic leukemia account for approximately 78%of all childhood leukemia. cytology and cytochemistry remain fundamental in diagnosis as it does not require high technology and can be applied in most laboratories throughout the world. Aims of the study: To evaluate the PAS positivity in bone marrow aspirate of newly diagnosed ALL children, to assess the positivity in each subtypes of ALL. and to evaluate the benefit of the special stain use in establishing diagnosis. Patients and method: bone marrow smears from newly diagnosed 122 patients all are children with mean age 5±3.06y and of range ( 6m-13y ) with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the slides, were stained by the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) and SBB, and the blast cell positivity was assessed quantitatively. the ALL cases were sub classified into L1,L2,L3 according to FAB classification and the special stains positivity for each subtype was mentioned. Results: the total number of patients was 122, out of 122 patients 89(73%)was positive for PAS stain ,33(27%) patient was negative .all 122 patients were negative for SBB. the patients further sub-classified into L1,L2,L3. the PAS positivity in ALL-L2 is 84% and this is good for hematologist as its more difficult in diagnosis than ALL-L1, while L3 is rarely positive. Conclusion: the cytochmical stains are still of much help to reach diagnosis of acute leukemia as the overall PAS positivity was 73%.

Keywords: ALL, Cytochemical stain, PAS, SBB.