DNA Aneuploidy in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia as Detected by Flow Cytometry: Relation to Phenotype, Presentation Features and Prognosis
Recent improvements in cytogenetic technology have provided the means to identify chromosomal abnormalities in the majority of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) [4, 18]. In addition to numeric aberrations, specific nonrandom translocations have been described [4, 17]. Cytogenetic studies have also emphasized the clinical significance of chromosomal aberrations in addition to previously identified prognostic factors such as white blood count, sex and age [4, 11, 20]. The applicability of cytogenetic techniques, however, is limited by the laborious and time consuming processing of samples and therefore not suitable for routine clinical evaluations.
Background ::: Anthropometric models remain appropriate alternatives to estimate body composition of peripubertal populations. However, these traditional models do not consider other body components that undergo major changes during peripubertal growth spurt, with restrictions to a multicompartimental approach as a quantitative growth. DXA has great potential to determine pediatric body composition in more than one component (3-C), but has limited use in field settings. Thus, the aim of this study was to propose and validate an anthropometric model for simultaneous estimation of lean soft tissue (LST), bone mineral content (BMC) and fat mass (FM) in healthy girls, from a multivariate approach of densitometric technique, as the criterion method.