biphenotypic acute leukaemia in children by flow cytometery

Acute leukemia is malignant disease, which is characterized by disordered differentiation of either lymphopoietic stem cells (Acute lymphoblastic leukemia) or haemopoietic cells or progenitor cells (Acute myeloid leukemia) into blast cells, which accumulates in the bone marrow and suppress the differentiation and proliferation of the normal haemopoietic cell.Acute leukemia displays characteristic patterns of surface antigen expression (CD antigens), which facilitate their identification and proper classification and hence play an important role in instituting proper treatment plans.There is however, a minority of cases which are difficult to classify using these methods because the blasts co-express myeloid and lymphoid markers. These cases have been designated as biphenotypic and have previously been described as of mixed lineage or hybridmyeloid antigen-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (My+ ALL) and lymphoid antigen-positive acute myeloid leukemia (Ly+ AML). It is likely that this miscellaneous group encompasses true biphenotypic cases along with ALL or AML with the expression of one or two aberrant..