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Facilitated Light Microscopic Cytochemical Diagnosis of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia¹

Dental Research Center, School of Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514 [J. S. H., W. W. A., C. J. J., J. M., P. E. Y.], and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology [S. A. G.], Department of Pathology [E. H. B.], and Department of Medicine and the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, [J. W. F., J. L., J. O. M.], Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710

Hydroperoxidase-positive Phi bodies and rods are much more prominent and prevalent than rods visualized with a Romanovsky-type stain (Auer rods) in immature leukocytes of patients with active acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). They are readily observed with the light microscope in peripheral blood or marrow films of AML patients stained to show their peroxidatic activity. In many of these patients, Auer rods, which apparently constitute only a small subpopulation of the hydroperoxidase-positive Phi bodies and rods, were detected with difficulty, if at all. The hydroperoxidase-positive Phi bodies and rods were observed in 92% of 36 patients with active disease. They were never observed in leukocytes of patients with other hematopoietic disorders or of normal individuals. Thus, they facilitated the distinction of AML from acute lymphocytic leukemia and chronic granulocytic leukemia in blast crisis. They were absent in full clinical remission after chemotherapy and were greatly diminished in partial remission. They were present in disease relapse and reappeared in five patients who had been in full remission. These results suggest that these hydroperoxidase-positive enlarged particles are pathognomonic of AML and that monitoring them with the light microscope may aid in guiding its clinical management.

¹ This investigation was supported by USPHS Research Grants DE 02668, DE 04730, CA 11265, and RR 05333, and by American Cancer Society Research Development Program Grant RD-58.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at the Dental Research Center, Dental Research Building, 210H, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N. C. 27514.

Received 8/18/78. Accepted 2/ 7/79.