The importance of adequate recognition of normal and dysplastic myelopoiesis for the diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes.

The diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes is based on the presence of cytopenias, dysplastic morphological features on peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM), cytogenetic abnormalities and requires to rule out other diseases resembling these conditions. Optical cytomorphology is the cornerstone of diagnosis of MDS. The recognition of cytological myelodysplasia has a crucial value in diagnosis and prognosis of MDS.

Acute myeloid dendritic cell leukaemia with specific cutaneous involvement: a diagnostic challenge.

Myeloid or type 1 dendritic cell leukaemia is an exceedingly rare haematopoietic neoplasm characterized by a specific immunophenotypic profile close to plasmacytoid dendritic cell and acute myelogenous leukaemia. A 77-year-old man presenting specific cutaneous infiltration by myeloid dendritic cell leukaemia is reported. The clinical features as well as the cutaneous histopathological and immunohistochemical features led to the initial diagnosis of CD4+/CD56+ haematodermic neoplasm.

Gain of multiple copies of the CBFB gene: a new genetic aberration in a case of granulocytic sarcoma.

Granulocytic sarcomas (GS) are tumor masses of immature myeloid cells presenting at an extramedullary site, mainly the skin, bone, and lymph node. They are often associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with monoblastic or myelomonocytic differentiation, including either AML M2 with t(8;21)(q22;q22) or AML M4Eo with inv(16)(p13q22). We present a case diagnosed with GS associated with AML M4 that presented a normal karyotype with conventional cytogenetic analysis.

Usefulness and reproducibility of cytomorphologic evaluations to differentiate myeloma from monoclonal gammopathies of unknown significance.

We attempted to differentiate monoclonal gammopathies of unknown significance (MGUS) and multiple myeloma (MM) on morphologic grounds and to determine interobserver reproducibility of the differentiation. Cytologists blindly evaluated bone marrow smears from 154 patients with bone marrow plasmacytosis for the proportion of plasma cells with predefined cellular atypias. The single morphologic characteristic that most strongly differentiated MM from MGUS was the presence of nucleoli.