Utility of hematology analyzer and flow cytometry in timely and correct detection of circulating plasma cells: Report of three cases.

Background: Circulating neoplastic plasma cells (PCs) are a common feature between classical plasma cell myeloma (PCM) and its aggressive variant, plasma cell leukemia (PCL), with their early suspicion and detection being of clinical importance for prognostic and diagnostic purposes.

Methods: Morphological and flow cytometric enumeration and characterization of peripheral blood (PB) neoplastic PCs were performed in 3 PCM patients after complete blood count (CBC) evaluation.

Results: Early suspicion of circulating PCs by initial CBC scatter plots and monocytosis led to morphological enumeration of PCs, with low level of concordance between morphologists.

Discrimination indices as screening tests for beta-thalassemic trait.

The two most frequent microcytic anemias are beta-thalassemic trait (beta-TT) and iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Several discrimination indices have been proposed to distinguish between these two conditions. These indices are derived from several simple red blood cell indices, like red blood cell (RBC) count, mean cell volume, and RBC distribution width (RDW), as these are provided by electronic cell counters.