Review Article
Flow Cytometry and Polymerase Chain Reaction-Based Analyses of Minimal Residual Disease in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Table 1
Overview about the most important differences between different MRD detection methods.
| | MRD Flow | ASO RQ-PCR |
| sensitivity | 10−4 | 10−4–10−5 |
| specificity | depends on | depends on | (i) measured cell type | (i) annealing temperature | (ii) B cell background | (ii) length of amplified DNA | (iii) antibody quality | |
| method | (i) surface antigen detection | (i) detection of amplified DNA with individual primer | (ii) possible antibody combinations: | (ii) possible targets: | (1) CD20/CD79b/CD19/CD5 | (1) Ig heavy chain | (2) CD20/CD38/CD19/CD5 | (2) Ig kappa | (3) CD22/CD81/CD19/CD5 | (3) Ig lamda |
| limiting factors | (i) high normal B cell background | (i) somatic hypermutation (rare in CLL) | (ii) antibody quality | (ii) loss of target gene |
| advantages | (i) high number of cells can be measured | (i) highest sensitivity of all available methods | (ii) cost effective | (ii) low interference with normal B cells | (iii) available in day-to-day business | | (iv) rapid (approx. 1 hour) | |
| disadvantages | (i) knowlegment for reliable results | (i) expensive (sequencing, PCR primers) | (ii) contamination of the system | (ii) time-consuming | | (iii) not available in every diagnostic laboratory |
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