The electron microscopic diagnosis of leukemia

Bone marrow aspiration specimens of 5 different leukemia patients were electron microscopically observed. The results showed that the both as acute premyelocyte leukemia diagnosed cases (case 1 and 2) revealed many abnormal premyelocytes which contained cytoplasmic Auer bodies with markedly different structures. The case 3 and 4 were diagnosed as different types of hairy cell leukemia, namely typical hairy cell leukemia (type Ⅰ) and atypical hairy cell leukemia (type Ⅱ). The morphological difference of both type Ⅰ,Ⅱ cells were expressed mainly in the different lengths and numbers of the hairy processes on the cell surface and these differences can only be observed electron microscopically. The case 5 was a partly differentiated type of acute myelocytic leukemia and the cytoplasm of the premyelocyte contained only a few electron dense granules. The electron microscopy of these cells showed a marked superiority in its resolving power than the light microscopy and suggested its significance also in the diagnosis of leukemia.