Alemu Jemal, Gumi Balako, Tsegaye Aster, Sherif Abdulaziz, Tadesse Fisihatsion, Gebremedhin Amha, Howe Rawleigh
Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Afr J Lab Med. 2025 Jan 23;14(1):2394. doi: 10.4102/ajlm.v14i1.2394. eCollection 2025.
Flow cytometric characterisation of acute leukaemia is a key diagnostic approach for clinical management of patients, but is minimally practised in resource-constrained settings like Ethiopia.
This study aimed to determine the immunophenotypes of acute leukaemia by flow cytometry at Tikur Anbessa Specialised Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A cross-sectional study was conducted on adolescent and adult inpatients consecutively admitted from April 2019 to June 2021. Peripheral blood samples were stained for surface and cytoplasmic markers, and analysed by four-colour flow cytometry.
Of 140 cases aged 13 years to 76 years, 74 (53%) were men and 66 (47%) were women, 68 (49%) had acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL), 65 (46 %) had acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML), and 7 (5.0%) had acute leukaemia non-otherwise specified. Acute lymphocytic leukaemia was more common among adolescent and male cases; AML was more common among adult and female cases. Among ALL subtypes, B-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia cases (73.5%) were more common than T-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia (26.5%). A subset of acute leukaemia, CD19+/CD56+ AML was identified in 3 cases (6% of AML). Of the B-cell ALL cases, 21 (42%) were CD34+/CD10+/CD66c+, 10% were CD34+/CD10+/CD66c-, 32% were CD34-/CD10+, and 6% were CD34+/CD10-. An unexpectedly high number of T-cell ALL cases that lacked surface CD3 were observed to have significantly higher levels of aberrantly expressed myeloid markers.
We observed multiple phenotypes identifying subtypes of acute leukaemia cases, extending our previous studies in Ethiopia.
This study extends previous studies by describing phenotypically defined subsets of ALL and AML which, in addition to diagnosis, may have useful prognostic value for clinicians.
急性白血病的流式细胞术特征分析是患者临床管理的关键诊断方法，但在埃塞俄比亚等资源有限的地区很少实施。
本研究旨在通过流式细胞术确定埃塞俄比亚亚的斯亚贝巴提库尔·安贝萨专科医院急性白血病的免疫表型。
对2019年4月至2021年6月连续收治的青少年及成年住院患者进行横断面研究。采集外周血样本，进行表面和细胞质标志物染色，并通过四色流式细胞术进行分析。
在140例年龄为13岁至76岁的患者中，男性74例（53%），女性66例（47%）；68例（49%）患有急性淋巴细胞白血病（ALL），65例（46%）患有急性髓细胞白血病（AML），7例（5.0%）患有未另行指定的急性白血病。急性淋巴细胞白血病在青少年和男性患者中更为常见；急性髓细胞白血病在成年和女性患者中更为常见。在所有ALL亚型中，B细胞急性淋巴细胞白血病病例（73.5%）比T细胞急性淋巴细胞白血病（26.5%）更为常见。在3例（占AML的6%）患者中鉴定出了一小部分急性白血病，即CD19+/CD56+ AML。在B细胞ALL病例中，21例（42%）为CD34+/CD10+/CD66c+，10%为CD34+/CD10+/CD66c-，32%为CD34-/CD10+，6%为CD34+/CD10-。观察到大量缺乏表面CD3的T细胞ALL病例异常表达的髓系标志物水平显著更高。
我们观察到多种表型可识别急性白血病病例的亚型，扩展了我们之前在埃塞俄比亚的研究。
本研究通过描述ALL和AML的表型定义亚组扩展了先前的研究，这些亚组除诊断外，可能对临床医生具有有用的预后价值。
