title: Detection of acute lymphoblastic leukemia involvement in pleural fluid in an adult patient with ataxia telangiectasia by flow cytometry method.
abstract: Ataxia-telangiectasia (AT) is a rare multisystem, neurodegenerative genetic disorder. Patients should be closely monitored due to risk of malignancy development. Due to its wide clinical heterogeneity, it often leads physicians to an inaccurate or missed diagnosis, and insight into this rare disease is important. Pediatric patients may develop lymphomas and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, in adults, there are limited numbers of reports regarding association of AT and ALL. Rarely, ALL cases may present with pleural fluid involvement. In our study, we presented an adult case with AT, in which ALL involvement was detected in pleural fluid by flow cytometry (FC). A 20-years old male presented to emergency department with fever, shortness of breath and cough, as he had been followed with a diagnosis of AT. The following findings were detected in laboratory tests: Hb, 11.5 g/L; WBC, 36 × 10(9)/L; Plt: 140 × 10(9)/L. Blastic cells were observed in peripheral blood smear. On chest radiography, pleural fluid appearance was observed. On thorax CT, pleural fluid was detected in both hemithorax. Cytoplasmic CD3(+) and superficial CD3 (+), CD45 (+), CD5 (+), CD7 (+) and CD38 (+) was found in the flow cytometric evaluation of peripheral blood. Superficial CD3 (+), CD2 (+), CD5 (+) and CD7 (+) were found in flow cytometric evaluation of pleural fluid. These findings were considered as consistent with pleural involvement of T-ALL. FC is a potentially useful diagnostic tool for clinical practice and it is a convenience method which has an important role in detection of ALL in patients with pleural fluid.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Muzaffer
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keklik
authors.affiliation: Flow Cytometry Unit, Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey.
authors.forename: M Yavuz
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Koker
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Serdar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sivgin
authors.affiliation: Flow Cytometry Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey.
authors.forename: Demet
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Camlica
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Cigdem
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pala
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cetin
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Leylagul
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kaynar
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Unal
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Erciyes Stem Cell Transplantation Hospital, Erciyes University, Kayseri, 38039 Turkey.
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eser
keywords: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Ataxia-telangiectasia; Flow cytometry; Pleural effusion