Hi Flowers! AFCG guidelines recommend processing peripheral blood and bone marrow for flow cytometry within 48 hours, and normally we would process most samples within 24 hours. In the last few years,we have dealt with a patient diagnosed with NHL, who presented with a small cell lymphoma with large cell transformation, expressing CD19+CD20+CD5+Lambda+ in his lymph node, bone marrow and peripheral blood. However there were times when he appeared to have an active lymphoma, but no cells could be detected. Recently, peripheral blood smears were prepared within a short time of blood collection, showing WBC 84.3x10^9/l, cirulating lymphoma cells 64.9x10^9/l. Four hours later, more slides were prepared for demonstration purposes, only to find that more than half of the malignant cells had deteriorated. Does anyone else have any experience with particularly short-lived lymphoma cells, and is it related to a particular type of lymphoma? Should we include a cautionary note in our specimen guidelines? beth Beth Rees Royal Hobart Hospital Hobart, Tasmania
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