Bone marrow histological patterns in B-cell and T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia.
Bone marrow trephine biopsies from 30 cases of prolymphocytic leukemia (PLL), 16B and 14T were studied. The bone marrow infiltration by the neoplastic prolymphocytes showed the following four histological patterns: interstitial, mixed (interstitial-nodular), mixed (interstitial-diffuse), and diffuse. The most frequent pattern was the mixed (interstitial-nodular) seen in 40% of cases. In comparison with available data from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the bone marrow involvement in PLL differs by the absence of the pure nodular pattern and by the presence of a mixed (interstitial-diffuse) type, seen in 5 cases. No significant differences between the histological patterns in B- and T-PLL were observed. All the cases reviewed had reticulin fibrosis which was more intense in the T cases and in those with a diffuse pattern. The findings described here will help in the further characterization of these lymphoproliferative disorders.
MRC Leukemia Unit, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London, England.
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Nieto
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Lampert
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Catovsky
D001706:Biopsy; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D005355:Fibrosis; D006801:Humans; D015448:Leukemia, B-Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D015463:Leukemia, Prolymphocytic / Q000473:pathology*; D015458:Leukemia, T-Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D010641:Phenotype