The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is an established tool for the detection of specific @entity2008 in different @entity5 . Owing to fast degradation of RNA, the immediate processing of samples is thought to have a major influence on the reliability of results. Any delay caused by transport may be an obstacle to reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR)-based methods in multicentre studies. However, as air-dried bone marrow smears are usually available, we have improved a method to use smears as a source for routine RT-PCR investigations. We studied whether this source of RNA could overcome problems caused by delayed transport of samples. The aim of the present study was (i) to investigate the influence of a storage period of up to 4 d before processing of a specimen by nested @entity1864 RT-PCR, and (ii) to compare bone marrow aspirates with bone marrow smears stored at room temperature in parallel. Bone marrow aspirates and smears were taken from 11 @entity1 with @entity1860 ( @entity1860 ). PCR results were semiquantified using a limiting dilution assay. We observed a loss of sensitivity < 1 log in stored bone marrow aspirates, even after 96 h. Results obtained from air-dried unstained glass slide smears were similar to investigations performed on approximately 1 x 10(5) cells of a bone marrow aspirate. We conclude that a storage period of up to 96 h has little influence on the detection of a @entity1864 fusion transcript in @entity1860 at diagnosis. Glass slide smears were equivalent to bone marrow aspirates in 8 out of 11 cases as a source for RT-PCR analysis when nested PCR was performed.

Semiquantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis for detection of XXXX rearrangement using RNA extracts from bone marrow aspirates compared with glass slide smears after 0, 2 and 4 d of storage.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['haematological malignancies'] @entity2008 :: ('MESH:D002869', 'Disease') :: ['chromosomal aberrations'] @entity1864 :: ('25;613', 'Gene') :: ['bcr/abl'] @entity1860 :: ('MESH:D015464', 'Disease') :: ['CML', 'Ph-positive chronic myeloid leukaemia']
@entity1864 :: (25;613,Gene) :: ['bcr/abl']
