elevated WBC with tachycardia

[EMT23]

Has anyone ever heard of an elevated WBC due to persistent tachycardia? Was in the ER due to sustained tachycardia and the ER doctor told me my WBC was very elevated which is normal for someone with my tachycardia problems.

[cindy707]

Wow that was great...i also learned something new today with your post.  I never would have thought that our white blood cells would increase due to tach...with all of the major attacks of atrial fib and tach i had now that i think of it i don't think anyone ever did labs on me even once.  When you say "this kind of tach" what type of tach are we talking here?  I completely understand the fight or flight mode we go into..been there done that more times then i care to remember however where i am a little curious is that if our wbc increases why then are we not getting a fever with it?  That is the norm when it occurs....that is one thing i do remember them doing time and time again is monitoring my temp thru each episode....its interesting....i think i want to look into this one a little more...especially if i get hit with these questions during one of the classes i teach....i'll have to toss this one out to a couple of the docs because on a personal level i am super curious about this...thank you for sharing EMT23......

[EMT23]

I talked to my doctor today about my elevated WBC. Apparently the ER doctor was correct when she said it was a normal response to the tachycardia.  When you have sustained tachycardia it puts such a workload on the heart that it causes the rest of your body to go into the "fight or flight" mode because of the stress load it is under....which in turn causes abnormal labs...the doctors told me this kind of tachycardia can also elevated the Troponins (cardiac enzymes) to make it look like you are having a heart attack even if you are not. I had a 15,000 WBC on Saturday and today after only brief episodes of tachycarida since Saturday it is back down into the 8,000 range which is normal. I definately learned something new with this.

[cindy707]

I agree with bypeep 100% on this one....i went thru something similar a few months back due to an infection i got from a bad molar and it really gave me a run for my money...the heart doc said that i had an infection going on which he said made my heart "irritable" and caused the tach to act up....i can't think of a single reason of why a bout of tach would cause your white blood cell count to increase unless its doing its job and fighting something for you in your body.....

[bypeep]

Elevated WBC is usually due to some sort of infective process - which might in turn cause a tachycardia.  I'd be more inclined to believe the WBC was causing the tachycardia, not the other way around.  Unless of course the WBC was elevated because of a pericarditis or some sort of inflammation of the heart or tissues surrounding it.  Just a guess though.