To standardize the detection of cerebrospinal fluid in hematological malignancy by multiparameter flow cytometry / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is a serious complication of hematological malignancies. At present, the gold standard to detect CNS involvement is cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytology, but it has low sensitivity. The multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) shows higher sensitivity than CSF cytology. The occult central nervous system involvement with negative conventional cytology but positive MFC result is the same as dominant central nervous system involvement, which is associated with a high risk of recurrence of hematological tumors. However, due to the particularity of cerebrospinal fluid specimens--less number of cells, low activity, and more interfering cells, the application of MFC for detection of cerebrospinal fluid is limited. Therefore, there is an urgent need to standardize the MFC detection of CSF for hematological tumors, including defining specimen transportation, antibody selection and cut-off value, standardizing data analysis and strengthening employee training, which will greatly improve the role of MFC in the diagnosis of CNS with hematological malignancies.