Hi Annette!
You know you ask really difficult questions though you are a new member - perhaps you won't understand the answer now but you will hopefully learn something.
Remission due to therapy in MDS:
http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/96/12/3671.long
In Table 1 you can read:
1. Complete remission (CR)
Bone marrow evaluation:
Repeat bone marrow showing less than 5% myeloblasts with normal maturation of all cell lines, with no evidence for dysplasia.* When erythroid precursors constitute less than 50% of bone marrow nucleated cells, the percentage of blasts is based on all nucleated cells; when there are 50% or more erythroid cells, the percentage blasts should be based on the nonerythroid cells.
Peripheral blood evaluation:
Hemoglobin greater than 11 g/dL (untransfused, patient not on erythropoietin)
Neutrophils 1500/mm3 or more (not on a myeloid growth factor)
Platelets 100 000/mm3 or more (not on a thrombopoetic agent)
Blasts 0%
No dysplasia*
2. Partial remission:
All the CR criteria (if abnormal before treatment), except:
Bone marrow evaluation: Blasts decreased by 50% or more over pretreatment, or a less advanced MDS FAB classification than pretreatment. Cellularity and morphology are not relevant.
Blast cells are immature cells and we should have immature cells in our bone marrow and less than 55 is normal.
Kind regards
Birgitta-A