Incidental finding of NEUTROPAENIA

  • Isolated neutropaenia is a common incidental finding in primary care. It is most often caused by acute viral infection. Benign ethnic neutropenia is common in people of black African and Afro-Caribbean ethnicity

    Severity of neutropenia

    • Mild: 1.0-1.5×109 neutrophils/L

    • Moderate: 0.5-0.9×109 neutrophils/L

    • Severe: <0.5×109 neutrophils/L

BASICS

Our blood has got 3 main type of cells, floating in Plasma. The Red Blood Cells (RBC), which contain Haemoglobin (which makes blood red), that primarily carry O2 to the vaious tissues in the body.  The second type of cells in the White Blood Cells (WBC), which are there to fight infection. There are several kinds of white blood cells. Two main ones are Neutrophils & Lymphocytes. Neutrophils fight fungal and bacterial infections. Lymphocytes protect the body from viral infections. The third types of cells are called Platelets which help stop bleeding by helping with clot formation.

The condition is serious if all 3 cell lines, that is RBC (Hb), WBC and platelets are all low.