Lymphocyte subpopulations in peripheral blood of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Various lymphocyte subpopulations of peripheral blood of 65 patients with aleukaemic non-Hodgkin lymphoma were studied. The clinically active state and remission in both low and high grade malignancy groups were compared. An elevated lymphocyte count was found in the blood of aleukaemic patients, too. Lymphocytosis in low grade malignancies in the clinically active states was found to be higher than in the corresponding group of the high grade cases. The data showed that the most important factor in the increase of total blood lymphocyte count is the increase in the amount of B-lymphocytes. The TA/TT ratio was significantly reduced in all subgroups. The OKT4/OKT8 ratio was normal in all cases.