A procedure for in-cell amplification of the hybrid BCR-ABL mRNA by reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) without extraction of the nucleic acids was performed directly in fixed and permeabilized cells of leukemia patients (22 patients with Ph'-positive chronic myeloid leukaemia-CML and 1 with Ph'-positive acute leukaemia-AL, as well as 7 Ph'-negative cases) and Ph'-positive human leukaemia cell lines (K562, LAMA-84, BV173).
The study population consisted of 78 patients with AML, 44 patients with Ph1 + CML in chronic phase, and 35 adult patients with Ph1 + CML in blastic phase, among which 5 cases presented as Ph1 + acute leukemia.
Abnormalities of megakaryocyte morphology, increases in the numbers of megakaryocytes, and normal to increased platelet counts are not uncommon in patients with acute leukemia and CML-B, and are not uniquely associated with changes involving chromosome 3.
Molecular studies showed breakpoint cluster region rearrangement between exons e1 and a2 compatible with a p190(bcr/abl) breakpoint as observed in Ph-positive lymphoblastic acute leukaemia.