Percentage of Positive Cells: The percentage of positive blood lymphocytes
(Table 3) was greater than 70% in the majority of cases. In all instances
the same number of cells was labeled for the heavy and for the light chain
in a given patient. Negative cells were present in all blood samples studied
and such cells were not distinguishable from the positive lymphocytes by
phase contrast examination. When blood lymphocyte counts were higher
than 10,000, most of the lymphocytes were usually positive in untreated
as well as in treated patients. Less than 30% of lymphocytes were labeled