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A computer simulation for exploring the detection of monoclonal B‐cell lymphocytosis by flow cytometry
Author(s) -
Champion Patrick D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
cytometry part b: clinical cytometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.646
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1552-4957
pISSN - 1552-4949
DOI - 10.1002/cyto.b.20557
Subject(s) - monoclonal , flow cytometry , lymphocytosis , population , monoclonal antibody , polyclonal antibodies , biology , immunology , b cell , immunophenotyping , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , antibody , environmental health
Background: Monoclonal B‐cell lymphocytosis (MBL) is defined by the presence of monoclonal B‐cells in peripheral blood in the absence of hematologic disease. MBL is detected by flow cytometry with increasing frequency as the number of B‐cells acquired increases. Methods: Computer simulations in R language were used to examine the impact of increasing the number of B‐cells acquired on the sensitivity of detecting MBL and to explore the possibility of detecting distinct B‐cell clones among polyclonal B‐cell populations. Results: With simulated populations containing 0.1%–1.0% monoclonal B‐cells, the number of clonal B‐cells detected showed a normal distribution in the upper range of clonal cells acquired and more nearly log‐normal as the distributions became bounded by 0. The distributions peaked around the clonal prevalence. The detection of MBL increased sharply with a small increase in the total number of B‐cells acquired when the number of clonal cells acquired was near the MBL cutoff point. MBL could be detected in log‐normally distributed polyclonal B‐cell populations. Conclusions: Sampling variability in detecting monoclonal B‐cells can be investigated through simulation. The observed population prevalence of MBL can be approximated with reasonable assumptions about the distribution of clonotypes in the circulating B‐cell compartment. © 2010 International Clinical Cytometry Society