Flow Cytometric Immunophenotyping was employed for the study. The myeloid antibodies employed in AML in our study included - CD117, CD11c, CD13, CD15, CD33, CD34, CD36, CD41, CD65 and MPO.
Results:
In our study AMLs constituted 46% of all acute leukemias. CD117 positivity was seen in 86.56% of the French American British (FAB) category of AML. The blasts gated using CD45 v/s SSC revealed variable expression of CD34, CD13 and CD33. The expression of CD117 was consistent particularly in AML-M0, AML-M1 and AML M2.
Conclusions:
CD117 is virtually a myeloid blast marker with a high sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value. Among the various myeloid markers like cMPO, CD13, CD33 and CD117, it is just CD117 that has got a tremendous reproducibility in AMLs. Besides CD117 is a surface marker unlike MPO thus easier to process, time saving and less prone to nonspecific binding.