Acute myeloid leukemia by flow cytometry immune phenotypic: A characteristics analysis of 125 cases

Objective To investigate immune phenotypic characteristics of adult patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and its clinical significance. Methods One hundred and twenty-five adult patients with AML admitted to Zhuozhou City Hospital and Chinese PLA General Hospital from May 2011 to June 2014 were enrolled in this study. The immune phenotype in the 125 cases with AML were detected by multicolor flow cytometry with CD45/SSC double parameters scatter plot setting as door. Results The positive rate of myeloid specific antigen expression in AML patients were CD13 (90.4%), CD33 (86.4%), MPO (80.0%), CD117 (73.6%). CD14 and CD15 mainly expressed in M₄and M₅. CD64 and CD15 also showed strongly positive with high expression of HLA-DR which suggested high possibility of M₅. A strong autofluorescence, myeloid antigens CD13, CD33 and low expression of CD34, MPO and HLA-DR were shown in M₃patients. Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell marker antigen CD34, HLA-DR and CD38 were highly expressed in AML with the rate of 53.6%, 70.4% and 71.2%. Of the 125 cases, 56 cases showed leaching antigen expression with the expression rate of CD56 (25.6%), CD7 (19.2%), CD19 (9.6%), CD4 (7.2%), CD2 (6.4%), respectively. The expression of CD34⁺ ratio and the proportion of hepatosplenomegaly patients in LymAg⁺ group were significantly higher than LymAg^- group (P< 0.05). And the complete remission (CR) rate in patients with CD7⁺ was significantly lower than CD7^- patients (P< 0.05). However, there showed no significant difference in the CR rate of AML patients with lymphoid antigen expression and AML patients without lymphoid antigen expression (55.6% vs. 76.2%, P> 0.05). Conclusion AML patients show high expression of CD13, CD33, MPO, and part of AML patients also show expression of myeloid and lymphoid antigen. Patients with CD7⁺ expression have low CR ratio with poor prognosis.