Pediatric
Normal lymphocytes of children may be morphologically atypical. Due to sparse cytoplasm, nucleoli and fine chromatin, lymphocytes from newborns to young adults can appear blast-like. Combined with the fact that acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy in childhood, preparations from children can quickly be mistaken as malignant.
The lymphocytes below are from patients under 10 years of age with no malignancy.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia may present with normal leukocyte numbers. Common cell count abnormalities include anemia, neutropenia and thrombopenia, with two or three cell lines usually affected.
Pediatric lymphocytes
Pediatric preparation
To give an indication of the variation, lymphocytes from a normal, representative bloodfilm are shown below. No malignancy is present.
