The usefulness of a rapid PCR methodology to detect rearranged Ig heavy chain genes in lymphoproliferative disease in a diagnostic setting

Abstract

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify the DNA fragments of the framework 3 region (FR3) of the immunoglobulin heavy (IgH) chain genes, from the tissue of 66 patients with Blymphoproliferative diseases and 74 patients with other malignant diseases, reactive or normal tissue. The assay performed with 77% sensitivity,100% specificity and 89% efficacy. In addition, the PCR assay cost less than 250 of the cost of performing Southern blot analysis of tumor DNA, which has been the test performed to date, and had a turn around time of 24 hrs rather than the 7-14 days required to obtain a result from Southern blot analysis. These results suggest that PCR analysis of B-cell lymphoproliferative disease is superior to Southern blot analysis, in the setting of a diagnostic laboratory.