Comparative analysis between cytomorphology and flow cytometry methods in central nervous system infiltration assessment in oncohematological patients.

Introduction: Oncohematological patients require the evaluation for possible infiltration of the central nervous system (CNS) by neoplastic cells at diagnosis and/or during the monitoring of the chemotherapeutic treatment. Morphological analysis using conventional microscopy is considered the method of choice to evaluate the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, despite technical limitations.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the performance of the cytomorphology and flow cytometric immunophenotyping (FC) in the detection of CNS infiltration.