Flow Cytometric Assessment of Hematopoietic Neoplasia in the Dog

Immunophenotyping refers to the application of antibodies specific for differentiation antigens of leukocytes to identify lineages of these cells present in reactive (inflammatory) or neoplastic diseases involving the immune system. Immunophenotyping is an objective adjunct to conventional morphologic assessment. Immunophenotyping can be performed on fluids (such as blood, bone marrow and tissue suspensions) by flow cytometry. It can also be performed on snap frozen tissue sections, formalin-fixed paraffin sections and unfixed cytological smears and blood smears. Flow cytometric immunophenotyping has the advantages of being a fast, objective, sensitive and quantitative method [1]. There are numerous diseases in which the application of immunophenotyping is a crucial element in the attainment of an accurate diagnosis and therefore the provision of an accurate prognosis or institution of appropriate therapy.