Cheryl,
I have seen this sort of thing a few times and it has always been in the context of a
T cell lymphoproliferative disorder. The malignant clone of cells having a lower expression of
Eg: CD3; I saw a very nice example recently - a case of Sezary Syndrome with a separate population
Of CD3+, CD4+ lymphoid cells which had distinctly less CD3 than the main group of T helpers (which
had precisely the same level of CD3 expression as the CD3+, CD4- population on the CD3/CD4
bivariate plot.
Flow is regarded as *usually not helpful* in T cell disorders - but in this case it was nice to be
able to accurately determine the number of Sezary cells in the PB
Do your patients have known/suspect lymphoproliferative disorders ??
Regards
Peter Chapple
Melbourne AUSTRALIA