Diagnosis of lymphoma in paraffin wax sections by nested PCR and immunohistochemistry.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry can be used to diagnose malignant lymphoma.


METHODS
Paraffin wax embedded tissue sections from 31 patients with malignant lymphoma were analysed by nested PCR and immunohistochemistry using standard protocols.


RESULTS
Nested PCR amplification of 1 pg DNA confirmed monoclonality in B cell lymphoma; PCR amplification of 10 pg DNA confirmed monoclonality in T cell lymphoma. Twenty seven (87%) samples were diagnosed as malignant lymphoma by nested PCR, and 24 (77%) by immunohistochemistry. Seven samples were diagnosed as malignant lymphoma by nested PCR, but not by immunohistochemistry, whereas the use of both procedures gave a diagnosis of malignant lymphoma in all 31 samples.


CONCLUSIONS
A combination of immunohistochemistry and nested PCR can be used to diagnose malignant lymphoma in routine paraffin wax embedded sections.
Kitamura
Y
Y
Second Department of Pathology, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan.
Nanba
E
E
Inui
S
S
Tanigawa
T
T
Ichihara
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001483:Base Sequence; D005260:Female; D015321:Gene Rearrangement; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity