The prevalence of hand-mirror cells in acute myeloblastic and lymphoblastic leukemia.
To evaluate the prevalence and significance of hand-mirror cells (HMC) in acute leukemia, 214 cases were studied retrospectively. They were classified by FAB and included 102 pediatric and 112 adult cases. Greater than 10% HMC were found in 6.5%. No overall difference was noted with age group, though HMC were more common in lymphoblastic cases (10% versus 3%). However, the greatest number of HMC were found in four adult cases, three of which were myeloblastic. Of the lymphoblastic cases with greater than 10% HMC, T and B studies were done in three that were typed as one T cell and two non-T cell (L1, CALL+; L3, sIg+). Forty-eight other cases with less than 10% HMC included 13 T cell and 35 non-T cell. The authors conclude that HMC may not correlate with morphologic or immune cell type and they do not appear to be a specific marker for a type of lymphoblastic and/or T-cell leukemia.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007945:Leukemia, Lymphoid / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D012189:Retrospective Studies