Most diseases, irrespective of the organ they primarily involve, produce changes in the blood at some time or the other. Clinical manifestation of a disease and hematological investigation complement each other in diagnosing a disease.
White blood cells are the body guards that fight infection such as bacterial infection, viral infection or any other auto immune response produced in our body.
Elevation of white blood cells is called leukocytosis.
And white blood cells are called leucocytes.
Types White Blood Cells
There are 5 subcategories of white blood cells
- Neutrophils
- Lymphocytes
- Eosinophils
- Basophils
- Monocytes
- White blood cells are produced in the bone marrow.
- The normal white blood cell count is highly variable from person to person; it is between 4000 to 10,500/in a micro liter of blood. Anything above this value is considered to be elevated white blood cell count.
Causes of Increased WBC Count
There are many causes for elevation of white blood cell:
- Body produces more white blood cells to fight infection caused by bacteria; such as staphylococcal or streptococcal infections.
- Reaction to a drug such as aspirin, quinine, beta antagonist etc.
- Diseases of bone marrow such as acute lymphocytic leukemia, cancer, polycythemia Vera.
- Auto immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis etc.
- Burns.
- Tuberculosis.
- Measles
- Fever
- Physical stress.
- Pneumonia.
- Bacterial infection in urinary tract will result in elevation of white cells in urine.
- Bacterial meningitis will elevate the level of white cell count in cerebrospinal fluid.
Also see Low White Blood Cell Count In Children