Comparison of cytogenetics with FISH in 40 myelodysplastic syndrome patients.

Karyotyping is important for diagnosis and prognosis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) either mitotic or interphase cells can be analyzed and a higher number of cells can be screened. This study evaluated the effectiveness of FISH in detecting the most common chromosomal abnormalities [-5/del 5q/-7/+8/del 11q23 and -Y] in 40 patients with MDS. Karyotype detected abnormalities in 35.2% of the patients and FISH in 35%, while some abnormalities remained undetected by each approach but the association of both methods increased the detection rate up to 40%.