Using peripheral smear review, age and absolute lymphocyte count as predictors of abnormal peripheral blood lymphocytoses diagnosed by flow cytometry

Absolute lymphocytosis in the elderly raises the possibility of malignancy and generally warrants further investigation. To better correlate clinical variables with the frequency of neoplastic lymphoid processes in this population, we retrospectively reviewed archived flow cytometric analyses from peripheral blood specimens on patients of 50 years of age and older that had been deemed suspicious for a lymphoproliferative process after peripheral smear review. Age, absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), white blood cell count and relative lymphocyte count were correlated with the results of flow cytometry. Of 71 total cases, 42 (59%) had an abnormal immunophenotype. Independent variables that showed significant differences between normal and abnormal immunophenotype were mean age (p=0.001) and ALC (p=0.0032). We combined age and absolute lymphocyte count variables to look for the best possible cutoff values to predict the likelihood of an abnormal immunophenotype. ALC cutoff values of >= 4 x 10(9) cells/L for patients over 67 years of age, and > 6.7 x 10(9) cells/L for patients between 50 and 67 years of age, had a high sensitivity for detecting an abnormal immunophenotype.