title: Peripheral blood neutrophil morphology reflects bone marrow dysplasia in myelodysplastic syndromes.
abstract: Dysplastic features of cells in peripheral blood and bone marrow were studied in 51 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) to evaluate the significance of the degree of neutrophil granulation (G-score) and the percentage of pelgeroid polymorphs (ppp) in the peripheral blood, as indices of dysplastic changes in the bone marrow. There was a good correlation between peripheral blood and bone marrow findings, both for G-score figures (r = 0.92, P < 0.01) and ppp (r = 0.82, P < 0.01). Significantly lower G-score figures were found among patients with an increased percentage of bone marrow blasts (P < 0.05), while high ppp correlated with the presence of ring sideroblasts, the degree of bone marrow fibrosis, and findings of complex chromosomal abnormalities. Patients with a high degree of bone marrow dysplasia had significantly lower G-score (P < 0.01) and significantly higher ppp (P < 0.05) figures, than those with less pronounced myelodysplasia. In addition, extreme hypogranulation (G-score < 150) or very high ppp (> or = 20%) was generally a sign of bi- and tri-lineage dysplasia in the bone marrow. The results thus show that quantitative estimation of peripheral blood polymorph dysplasia by G-score figures and ppp seems to reflect the total degree of bone marrow dysplasia in MDS and may serve as a complement to bone marrow evaluation when the diagnosis of MDS is difficult.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Widell
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hellström-Lindberg
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kock
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lindberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ost
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hast
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology*; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000473:pathology*; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000473:pathology*