Summary. Persistent and polyclonal lymphocytosis of B lymphocytes (PPBL) with binucleated lymphocytes is an entity characterized by a polyclonal lymphocytosis. The lymphocytosis is stable for years and binucleated lymphocytes are detected on peripheral blood smears. We previously described þi(3q) as a recurrent chromosomal abnormality in seven PPBL patients. In this study we report a large series of 25 PPBL patients and demonstrated that PPBL was associated with þi(3q) in 77% of cases, premature chromosome condensation (PCC) in 50% and both abnormalities in 41% of cases. Furthermore, we demonstrated that i(3q) was present in a minority of B cells, restricted to B lymphocytes independently of the kappa or lambda light Ig chain expression, and exclusively observed in non-binucleated cells.The benign clinical course of PPBL and the lack of biological evolution in the majority of cases suggest that recognition of these disorders is so important that aggressive therapy in PPBL has to be avoided. Whether this syndrome represents a premalignant or benign disease remains unclear. The persistence of cytogenetic abnormalities after stopping tobacco use suggests no association with cigarette smoking.

Rituximab, a chimeric mouse/human monoclonal antibody that binds to the CD20 antigen, is part of current treatment of many B-cell malignancies and several autoimmune diseases. Very few cases of rituximab administration during pregnancy have been described. We report here the case of rituximab administration during the first trimester of pregnancy in a woman with autoimmune hemolytic anemia. No significant effects were observed in B-cell counts or the immune status of the newborn.

Summary. Panels of immunological markers are useful in refining diagnosis in view of certain variability between B-cell leukaemias. A statistical multivariate approach was used on 100 B leukaemias (preliminary sample) to explore the potential value of the combination of CD43, and the classical markers CD5, CD23, CD79b, FMC7, CD22 and surface immunoglobulin to differentiate chronic lymphoid leukaemia (CLL) from lymphoma (non-CLL). CD43 was highly effective (P < 0AE00001) and its inclusion in the panels improved the accuracy of discrimination in a Ôcon-trolÕ sample of 74 B leukaemias to 98AE6%. Inclusion of CD43 facilitates the diagnosis of B-lymphoproliferative disorders and improves their classification.

No abstract

We show that automatic determination of regularization threshold and pre-filtering of 3-D fluorescence microscopic images improves the stability of deconvolution results when using the Linear Least squares Solution or the Maximum a Posteriori method. Doing so, the choice of the regularization parameter much less depends on a priori knowledge of the specimen or skills of the operator. This increases the reliability and repeatability of quantitative measurements on deconvolved images.