Malignancy-associated changes in monocytes and lymphocytes in acute leukemias measured by high-resolution image processing.
A number of methods are available for classifying lymphoid and myeloid leukemias in peripheral blood and bone marrow. However, in clinical diagnosis an initial and particularly important step is morphologic analysis. All the cells in this investigation were classified by two hematologic experts. In most cases, immunophenotyping and immunocytochemical analyses were performed. Routinely prepared Romanowsky-Giemsa-stained peripheral blood smears (approximately 23,000 cells) were scanned by a high-resolution color TV/microscope system and analyzed by color and texture algorithms. In addition to blast cells, lymphocytes and monocytes exhibited a leukemia-associated change in morphology. The calculated texture and color features were most significant for the subtyping performed by the statistical program. With multivariate statistical analysis, seven mathematical subtypes of lymphocytes and five of monocytes could be found over all the specimens. Acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML, M1-M2), acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMMOL, M4) and acute monocytic leukemia (AMOL, M5) could be differentiated by their distributions of monocyte subtypes. However, this was impossible for the lymphocyte subtypes. Acute lymphoblastic leukemias (B-ALL and T-ALL) were discernible with the aid of lymphocyte subtypes and acute myeloid conditions from viral infections, such as with the Epstein-Barr virus. The method increased the relevance of image processing in clinical diagnosis of acute leukemias and showed that the "normal" cell populations were not really normal in malignant leukemias.
Harms
H
H
Department of Hematology and Internal Medicine, University of Würzburg, Germany.
Gunzer
U
U
Baumann
I
I
Serbouti
S
S
D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D009000:Monocytes / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis