Eosinophils count

[Dl98]

I’m asthmatic and I’ve had my blood results back and I’ve noticed my count is 0.71. Attached results

[Dl98]

Hopefully makes sense lol

[Sazley1987]

Generally eosinophils should be under 300 in a normal healthy person. Have you had a recent infection? Have you ever had raised eosinophils before? It may be worth asking for a review because your levels are abnormally high. There is a sub type of asthma which is caused by eosinophils, called severe refractory eosinophilic asthma. It is generally resistant to genera asthma management.

Is your asthma well controlled?

[Dl98 in reply to Sazley1987]

Half and half I’d say

[Dl98 in reply to Dl98]

I’m getting a blood test on Monday

[Dl98 in reply to Dl98]

Also my mum Apparently has copd could I have inherited her from this

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to Sazley1987]

Not all eosinophilic asthma is severe or refractory though. Eosinophilic asthma is a subtype independent of severity, but often no one checks what type of asthma someone has until they've been referred because their asthma is difficult to manage - so it's often talked about as a type when someone's asthma is severe. This is also because with severe asthma there are targeted biologic treatments if the underlying type is eosinophilic, so it's one of the things they look at to see if that treatment is an option.

However, it's also possible to have eosinophilic asthma that can be well controlled by standard treatment, without needing biologics. It might take a bit of time to get the right treatment however, as with any type of asthma for some people.

Re the COPD: most COPD tends to be caused by environmental factors, like smoking or passive smoking, but also things like burning wood fuels inside for cooking, or high levels of industrial pollution. There are some genetic factors that influence how much you're affected by exposure to those things (some people are high risk to get COPD at a younger age with only a little exposure to smoke/pollution), but there are usually a lot of factors going into whether you have it, not just genetics. If your mum smoked for example (even in the past), but you don't, you probably have a much lower risk of having COPD.

Asthma can also run in families, but again there are a lot of factors including your environment that contribute; my mum for example never got asthma herself, though her father, grandmother and one of her brothers had it and I have it.