Scientific Journal of

  Abstract

 Background and Objectives

 Many studies have provided conclusive evidence for the existence of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) positive cases in some subgroups of AML. In approximately a half of studies TdT expression is correlated with poor prognosis. The incidence of TdT positive cases in patients varies in a wide range. This study was performed to determine the incidence of TdT expression in AML patients in our community and its positivity in morphologic subgroups at different sex and age groups.

 Materials and Methods

 In this study, 101 AML patients having referred to the Hematology and Oncology Center of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences were included. Data about FAB subgroups, sex, age and flowcytometry of patients were analyzed in SPSS software.

 Results

 TdT positive cells were detected in 24 patients (23.7%) two thirds of whom male. The median age of TdT positive patients was 30 years versus 40 in TdT–negative patients. Out of the 24 patients in the former, the age of 9 patients was under 20 years. TdT positivity was significantly associated with FAB M2 cases with 39% of whom being TdT-positive while this percentage in other FAB classes is calculated to be 15.3% (p= 0.004).

 Conclusions

 The TdT expression in AML is correlated with age. It is more common in patients under the age of 20. Although TdT expression is more common in M1/M2 AML cases, it also can occur in other FAB subtypes of AML.

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 Key words : Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Deoxynucleotidyl Transferase, Flow Cytometry�