Application of flow cytometry analysis for auxiliary diagnosis of non-hodgkin's lymphoma among Children with serous effusion and the clinical characteristics during non-hodgkin's lymphoma
Objective 
To evaluate the practicability of using flow cytometry analysis for diagnosis of non-hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) among children with serous effusion. 
 
 
Methods 
Twelve children who were diagnosed with malignant lymphoma from February 2011 to November 2013 at Shanghai Children's hospital were recruited in this study. Pleural effusion and ascites samples were collected from those children who showed serous effusion as initial symptoms and analyzed by using flow cytometry based immunophenotyping. The antibodies used for immunophenotyping included CD45, CD10, CD33, CD7, CD1a, MPO, cCD3, CD79a, CD22, CD19, CD20, CD5, CD3, κ, λ, αβ, γδ, CD56 and other common markers for T, B and NK cells. Anti-CD30 antibody was used when necessary. 
 
 
Results 
All of the twelve cases with serous effusion were diagnosed with aggressive NHL. Six out of the twelve children including five cases with ascites and one case with pleural effusion showed high expression of CD20 and were classified as NHL-B type by flow cytometry. Three children with pleural effusion and one child with both pleural effusion and ascites were typed as NHL-T as characterized by monoclonal expression of αβ or γδ. The other two children with pleural effusion were diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma with positive expression of CD30 and morphological heterogeneity. 
 
 
Conclusion 
Flow cytometry analysis based immunophenotyping could be used as an auxiliary method for rapid and accurate diagnosis of lymphoma in children with serous effusions. 
 
 
Key words: 
Effusion; Children; Non-hodgkin's lymphoma; Flow cytometry; Immunophenotyping