Deficiency of a major myeloid antigen in neutrophils of patients with refractory anemia and excess myeloblasts.

The expression of a major granulocyte-related antigen was assessed on the peripheral blood neutrophils of patients with the syndrome of refractory anemia with excess blasts. Of thirteen patients studied six showed a marked decrease in the number of cells with detectable staining. These results indicate that, although the neutrophils may appear normal by standard morphological criteria in this disease, they may be defective in a major component associated with myeloid maturation.