OBJECTIVETo study the value of bone marrow biopsy imprint in evaluating cellularity.

METHODSThe bone marrow tissues were obtained by trephine biopsy from 272 patients, and then put on the slides to make the imprints. The imprints was stained by Wright-Giemsa method, and the bone marrow smears and imprints were examined simultaneously according to the bone marrow cellularity criteria.

RESULTIn bone marrow cellularity, four grades (distinct decrease, extreme decrease, distinct increase, and extreme increase) were significantly higher in bone marrow imprints than those in bone marrow smears (P <0.05), but there was no significantly differences between bone marrow imprints and sections (P >0.05). Using bone marrow sections as standard, in cellularily decreasing samples, the consistent rate of bone marrow imprints and smears were both high (84.4% and 97.9%), in the group of the normal and increased cellularity, the consistent rate of the bone marrow imprints (84.4% and 97.7%) was significantly higher than that in smears (60% and 64%, P<0.01). The sensitivity, specificity, Youden index, positive predictive value and positive likelihood rate of bone marrow imprints were all higher than those of the smears. Using the bone marrow sections as gold standard, in 124 cases with decreased cellularity in smears, the positive diagnosis rate for aplastic anemia and dyshaematopoiesis based on bone marrow imprints was 37.1% with a false positive rate of 7.3% which was lower than that of the bone marrow smears (false positive rate of 29.8%, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONTo evaluate bone marrow cellularity, bone marrow imprint is better than bone marrow smear. The combination of the two examinations can make the diagnosis more convenient and quicker.