Morphological and functional analysis of basophils in chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) 1. Clinical evaluation of basophils with special reference to the basophilogram in the early diagnosis of blastic crisis

The pathophysiologic role of basophils in CML has not been fully elucidated. In order to establish criteria for the early diagnosis of blastic crisis in CML and also to gain some information about the maturation of basophils in CML, the author observed light-microscopically the morphologic changes of basophils in CML using so-called basophilograms. Types I and II basophils in the basophilograms corresponded to mature basophils, whereas types III and IV corresponded mostly to immature cells (r=0.65, p<0.01). Type III and IV basophils amounted to more than 60% of all basophils in the blastic phase of CML. These findings indicated that the basophilogram is useful in the early diagnosis of blastic crisis in CML.