Here’s an interesting
article: “Percentage of Smudge Cells
on Routine Blood Smear Predicts Survival in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia”
Here in the UK we call then “smear cells”. And bearing in mind they
are smeared broken cells, opinion has always been not to count them. However a
retrospective review has been carried out.
“Between
1994 and 2002, 108 patients were enrolled onto the study and had archived blood
smears available for review; 80% of patients had Rai stage 0 or I disease. The
median smudge cell percentage was 28% (range, 1% to 75%). The percentage of
smudge cells was lower in CD38+ versus CD38– patients (P = .019) and in
Zap70-positive versus Zap70-negative patients (P = .028). Smudge cell
percentage as a continuous variable was associated with prolonged survival (P =
.042).”
“The
10-year survival rate was 50% for patients with 30% or less smudge cells
compared with 80% for patients with more than 30% of smudge cells (P = .015).
In multivariate analysis, the percentage of smudge cells was an independent
predictor of overall survival.”
The practical upshot of all of this is that “Percentage of smudge cells on blood smear is
readily available and an independent factor predicting overall survival in CLL.”
I might jut have a word with the bosses at
work. This is something we could do.
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