Routine blood examinations combined with morphological analysis for the diagnosis of myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms

In 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced a new hematological neoplasm category; myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN), which included four main subcategories. This disease is often misdiagnosed, which delays effective therapy. The present study evaluated the role of routine blood examinations and morphological analysis of peripheral blood cells in the reliable diagnosis of MDS/MPN. In total, 236 adult MDS/MPN patients were analyzed. The analysis included 10 routine blood parameters measured using a Sysmex XE-2100™, 3 differential percentage parameters and 7 morphological features of peripheral blood cells which were analyzed by optical microscopy, and 3 differential absolute count numbers obtained based on the corresponding differential percentages and absolute count of blood cells. The parameters were compared among the subcategories and a value of P<0.05 was considered to indicate a statistically significant difference. The median white blood cell and hemoglobin counts of the patients were 18.0×10 9 /l and 88 g/l, respectively. The proportion of monocytes increased to 8% (1.82×10 9 /l), the proportion of blast cells increased to 1% (0.5×10 9 /l) and that of neutrophil precursors increased to 10% (1.98×10 9 /l). A total of 87% of all patients presented with hypogranulation and 71% presented with abnormal condensed nuclear chromatin in granulocytes. Atypical monocytes were observed in 73% of all patients and Pseudo-Pelger cells were observed in 60%. Significant differences were detected among the subcategories. The present study demonstrated that combining blood routine parameters and the morphological analysis of peripheral blood cells have an essential role in the reliable diagnosis of MDS/MPN based on WHO categories.