A pilot study on the usefulness of peripheral blood flow cytometry for the diagnosis of lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes: the "MDS thermometer".

Peripheral blood neutrophil and monocyte immunophenotyping provide useful information for the diagnosis of LR-MDS, as a complement to cytomorphology. If validated by subsequent studies in larger series of MDS patients and extended to non-MDS patients with cytopenias, our findings may improve the diagnostic assessment and avoid invasive procedures in selected groups of MDS patients.