Correlation of flow cytometry and bone marrow biopsy in marrow involvement of lymphoma patients

Introduction: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHLs) are hematolymphoid malignancies. Bone marrow biopsy (BMB) is performed for staging. BMB findings are an important indicator of prognosis and treatment planning. In this study, we compared flow cytometry and BMB in marrow involvement of lymphoma patients. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the frequency of involvement in bone marrow in flow cytometry and biopsy, compare the frequency of involvement in bone marrow in flow cytometry based on gender, compare frequency of bone marrow involvement in biopsy based on gender, compare mean age between two groups with bone marrow involvement and without bone marrow involvement in biopsy, compare mean age between two groups struggling with bone marrow involvement and without bone marrow involvement in flow cytometry, and compare mean ages between all genders struggling with bone marrow involvement and without bone marrow involvement in flow cytometry and biopsy. Patients and Methods: This study was cross-sectional, and the population included all patients affected by NHL, which bone marrow flow cytometry and biopsy performed for disease staging referred to Seyed Al-Shohada hospital affiliated with Isfahan University of medical sciences during 2016-2020. Four color flow cytometry devices (PARTEC CyFlow Space, Germany) with EXBIO antibody kits (Spain) were used. Results: In this study, the number of samples was 107, of which 68 (63.6%) were male, and the mean (standard deviation) of the total age was 40.87 (18.98) years. All samples were diagnosed as lymphoma and were examined by bone marrow flow cytometry and biopsy. Flow cytometry frequency of bone marrow involvement was 14 (13.1%), and biopsy frequency of bone marrow involvement was 22 (20.6%). In 97 cases (90.6%), the diagnosis of both methods was the same. Nine patients (8.4%) had bone marrow involvement in biopsy only, and one case (1%) had bone marrow involvement in flow cytometry only. As a result, bone marrow involvement in patients with lymphoma who participated in this project is about 21.5%. Conclusion: We concluded that evaluation of bone marrow involvement using combined methods is more efficient than biopsy or flow cytometry alone. We also recommended physicians use both methods at the same time.