The role of morphology, cytochemistry and immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of chronic myeloproliferative diseases.

Chronic myeloprolifeative diseases (CMPD) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by excessive proliferation and production of one or more of the myeloid cells and are subclassified according to the predominant cells, such as chronic myelogenous leukemia (CNL), chronic eosinophilic leukemia (CEL), polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis (CIMF). This brief review focuses on the characteristic morphology of each clinical entity and the useful cytochemical (including leukocyte alkaline phosphatase, myeloperoxidase, butyrate esterase, chloroacetate esterase and cyanide-resistant peroxidase) and immunohistochemical (including von Willebrand factor/CD61, keratin, tryptase, CD117, CD68 (PGM-1), c-Mpl and bFGF) stains for differential diagnosis.