095 - Summary Monocytes between reactivity and dysplasia
Autor(s): G. Da Rin
Issue: RIMeL - IJLaM, Vol. 4, N. 3-S1, 2008 (MAF Servizi srl ed.)
Page(s): 95-97
Reliability of the monocyte count can be important in diagnosis of different diseases; in fact, an increase in monocyte count is mainly observed in inflammation and infection disease, myelodysplastic syndromes, and moreover, the diagnosis of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia is particularly based on the presence of >1 • 109 monocytes/L. In our tests some discrepancies between instruments in monocyte counts were observed; these discrepancies may indicate that the different technologies don’t always recognize the same type of cell and it may be dependent on the difficulty in identifying monocytes consequently the monocyte heterogeneity (size, nuclear morphology, granularity, and functionality). The reference method for monocyte count could be improved by using a flow cytometry method, however this method is not useful in differentiating myelodysplasia from reactive monocytosis because phenotypic aberrations are lost on blood cells. The reliable distinction of dysplasia from reactive monocytosis can be challenging. Additional diagnostic tools to aid in this differential diagnosis would be highly desirable