Blood test results

[atytse]

Hi all,

My dad recently had an annual blood test and everything seemed fine except slight leucopenia and neutropenia.

His Haemoglobin is 13.2 g/dL, still within the reference range but has dropped from 15 last year
HCT is 37.8% which is slightly lower than the lower limit 40%
WBC count is 3.1 K/uL which is lower than the lowest 4.0 (Neutrophils 38.1%, lower than lowest 40, Lymphocytes 45.3%, slightly higher than highest 45%)

Doctor said it's not concerning and he should eat a regular diet (He doesn't consume much carbohydrate)

Is this normal? He doesn't seem to have any other symptoms. He used to smoke cigar and now he still drinks wine (a little too much). he's 50.

Thanks

[atytse]

Hi Kindd,

Thanks for your response.  He doesn't consume carbohydrate that much at all. I wonder if that would decrease his WBC.

I don't have the exact number of RBC with me right now but it's within the normal range.  I asked my mom about his numbers and she mentioned that my father has always had low WBC but doctor said it's fine because some people are just born like that.  I'm not sure about this.

He has quite a lot of energy and can run lot longer and faster than I do even though he's 50 and I'm 20.  He rarely gets sick as well.  So I really don't know why his WBC is low

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

As the principal function of white cells is to combat infection, a decrease in the number of these cells can place patients at increased risk for infection. Neutropenia is a decrease in the number of circulating neutrophil granulocytes, the most abundant white blood cells. The terms leukopenia and neutropenia may occasionally be used interchangeably, as the neutrophil count is the most important indicator of infection risk. However, neutropenia is more properly considered a subset of leukopenia as a whole.

Leucopenia can occur in a large no. of conditions. Mainly, it’s due to bone marrow(the factory of production of RBC’s, WBC’s and platelets) depression due to any reason but usually it’s associated with decreased counts of other cell lines like RBC’s and platlets.

There’re other diseases like Influenza, tuberculosis, dengue, Rickettsial infections, enlargement of the spleen, folate deficiencies.

Certain drugs can also cause leucopenia.

Since you’ve mentioned that your father is quite fond of drinking and he’s not got any other symptoms apart from leucopenia, the thing which strongly comes to mind is Folate deficiency which can occur in patients who drink.

Can I know the size of RBC’s in the Complete Blood count? If they are large in size, then it’s suggestive of Folate deficiency. He may need folic acid tablets for the same.

I’ll suggest you consult a haematologist and take an expert opinion.

Please do keep me posted.

Warm Rgds.