Mononuclear cell and lymphocyte subsets in CSF and peripheral blood from 10 children with acute-stage BM before treatment on the same day were measured by flow cytometry. The control subjects for the subsets of peripheral blood were 15 healthy children.
The percentages of CD14+ monocytes/macrophages (median: 56.5 % ), activated CD14+CD16+ monocytes/macrophages (20.9 % ), and CD14+CD16+ cells among total CD14+ cells (37.9 % ) in the CSF were significantly higher than those in the blood of children with BM (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, and p < 0.05, respectively), which were significantly higher than those of the controls (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.05, respectively). The percentages of CD3+ (77.3 % ), CD4+ (45.2 % ), and CD8+ T cells (32.6 % ) in the CSF were significantly higher than those in the blood of affected children (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, and p < 0.05, respectively). The percentages of CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cells in the blood of children with BM were significantly lower than those of controls (all p < 0.001). The percentages of CD20+ B cells (6.9 % ) in the CSF were significantly lower than those in the blood of affected children (p < 0.01), which were significantly higher than those of controls (p < 0.001).
The percentages of monocytes/macrophages and T cells in CSF were higher than those in blood in children with BM.