[The clinicopathological evaluation of automated cytochemical hematology system (Technicon H1) in patients with leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome].

To determine the usefulness of the H1 system, we applied it to 14 patients with acute leukemia and 19 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). We revealed interesting cytogram patterns in several patients with acute leukemia, ALL (L2), ALL (L3), and AML (M7). In the basophil and lobularity cytogram, their blast cells were clustered mainly in the blast box. However, a small cluster appeared in the basophil area and was expressed as pseudo-basophilia of 4.4%, 9.6%, and 21%, respectively. We speculated that not only normal basophils but also some type of leukemic blasts could be resistant to rupture of the cell membrane induced by a surfuctant at a low pH. Characteristics of H1 cytogram and histogram pattern have hardly been reported in patients with MDS. From the analysis of H1 pattern of 19 cases, we found that the (1) the values of RDW and HDW were high in comparison to those for aplastic anemia and normal controls and (2) the MPXI (mean peroxidase activity index) was significantly low at the time of diagnosis. MPXI had declined at the terminal stage in cases of death with bone marrow failure. These characteristics were concluded to be useful in clinicopathological diagnosis using the H1 automatic hematological system.