Cell-binding microarray application in diagnosis of hairy cell leukemia

We describe an application of a cell-binding microarray – to parallel study of morphology, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase activity and detection of surface markers on peripheral blood lymphocytes of 90 atients with suspected hairy cell leukemia (HCL). We have formulated the microarray-based diagnostic criteria for hairy cell leukemia, hairy cell leukemia variant (HCLv) and splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL). According to these criteria we have suggested the presence of HCL for 55 patients, HCLv – for 7 patients and SMZL – for 10 patients from the studied cohort. These diagnoses were confirmed by standard diagnostic methods in all cases. These results show that the cellbinding microarray can be used in differential diagnosis of HCL, while the high sensitivity of the microarray permits to detect the leukemic cells in spite of leukopenia and low hairy cell content.