Analysis of leucocyte differentiation antigens in blood and bone marrow in patients with refractory anaemia (RA) and RA with sideroblasts. Prognostic implications of sequential and follow‐up data

34 patients with primary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), initially diagnosed as subtypes refractory anaemia (RA) and RA with ringed sideroblasts (RA‐S), were followed to investigate the distribution of lymphoid and myeloid differentiation antigens in the blood and bone marrow in search of potential prognostic significance with regard to progression to RA with an excess of blasts (RAEB) or acute myeloid leukaemia, and for relations to clinical, morphological and cytogenetic findings. Patients who later progressed to RAEB had significantly decreased percentages of anti‐T8 positive T‐suppressor cells in the blood at diagnosis compared to those who did not (p = 0.05). Sequential analysis showed a decrease with time also in the percentages of anti‐T8‐positive cells (p = 0.05). In the bone marrow, progressing patients initially showed significantly increased percentages of anti‐My9‐positive immature myeloid cells (p < 0.001), and the percentages of anti‐My9‐positive cells in the bone marrow increased with time (p < 0.005). Analysis of the pooled data revealed a statistically significant relation between increasing percentages of anti‐My9‐positive cells and the frequencies of clonally abnormal (p < 0.001) and abnormal (p = 0.004) metaphases.