Microinterferometric measurement of dry weight of blood lymphocytes in hematologically normal patients and in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Lymphocytes from the peripheral blood of 20 patients with nonhematologic disorders (HN patients) and 13 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were studied. A scanning and integrating microinterferometer was used for calculation of dry weight of cells. In HN patients dry weight of lymphocytes was found to be 38.09 +/- 11.11 pg. The HN patients could be divided into three groups according to their lymphocytes' mund to be 29.79 +/- 7.99 pg. This population was uniform and resembled the "light" group of lymphocytes in HN patients. A study of the kinetics of PHA transformation of lymphocytes from both HN and CLL patients revealed a good correlation between the morphological evaluation and dry weight calculations.