New values for better diagnoses

Dr Christian Schultze-Florey and Dr Ivan Odak with blood serum samples in front of a flow cytometer ; Copyright: Karin Kaiser / MHH - MHH study develops reference tool for blood tests Lymphocytes belong to the white blood cells. They consist of several subgroups with different tasks in immune defence. Which and how many lymphocytes are in the blood provides information about our current state of health as well as congenital or acquired immune deficiencies. This composition in the blood can be determined precisely with the help of the most modern flow cytometry. What has been missing until now, however, were reference ranges to correctly classify the increasingly extensive measurement results of the modern devices and thus determine where the normal range ends and the disease begins. Now, a research team led by Dr. Christian Schultze-Florey from the Department of Haematology, Haemostaseology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation and Dr. Ivan Odak from the Institute of Immunology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) has examined the blood of more than 240 healthy adults and developed new standard values that should help to reliably distinguish between sick and healthy people. The study has been published in the renowned scientific journal "Leukemia".