Lymphocytes subsets reference values in childhood

Aim of this study is to analyze the lymphocyte subsets and activation markers distribution in children aged 0-18 years referring to the University Hospital of Padova and to create age-matched reference values expressed by percentiles.
Conclusion:
We present age-matched reference values for lymphocyte subsets and for some of the most important lymphocyte activation markers, obtained by analyzing 195 patients in the pediatric population of the University Hospital of Padova, thus providing a valuable guideline for the interpretation of the immunophenotype.
Notes:
Immunophenotyping of blood lymphocyte subsets and activation markers is a basic tool in the diagnostic process of primary immunodeficiency diseases, its use becoming more and more widespread as the knowledge about these illnesses increases. However, the availability of reliable reference values, which need to be age matched for the pediatric population, is a pre requisite for the reliable interpretation of immunophenotyping data. Internal quality control (IQC), the so called Immuno-Trol (Beckman-Coulter), performed daily, consisted of a liquid preparation of human stabilized red and white blood cells that was processed as a routine sample with the reagents in use. The UK Neqas External Quality Assessment “Leucocyte Immunophenotyping” external QC was used for assessing CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD19 values.