Interpretation
Clonal populations of cells yield one (monoclonal), two (clonal), or more (oligoclonal) prominent amplicons within a specified size range.
A normal (polyclonal) population of B cells will produce a polyclonal smear representing a heterogeneous population of V-J region rearrangements and, if graphed, would resemble a bell-shaped Gaussian curve.
Test Method
IGH PCR amplification is carried out using primers homologous to sequences of all three conserved framework regions (FR1, FR2 and FR3), and the joining (J) region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) gene.
Sensitivity approximately 2%.
Paraffin-embedded tissue may, or may not, yield DNA of a suitable quality or quantity for this assay and may be reported as Insufficient.
