Good or Bad

[Nicebaps]

Having been on G-CSF injections for the past 7 months + (twice weekly). Is a neutrophil count of 2.4 good or bad and do I need to be concerned.

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

Normal values are from 2 to 7.5 x 10 ^9/l, comprising 40 to 75% of white blood cells.

Note that absolute values are more meaningful than percentages.

Source

gpnotebook.co.uk/simplepage...

Another source...

The normal range for neutrophils is 2.5-7.5 x 109/L.

patient.co.uk/doctor/neutro...

[fieldmeadow]

Hi, my neutrophils dropped to 0.5 immediately prior to commencing treatment. Such a low reading was a cause for concern but yours appear to be within the acceptable range of absolute neuts - just.

[Nicebaps]

Thanks Fieldmeadow . They were 0.1 in April having finished FCR the previous August. I had Norovirus and that put me into hospital for 10 days. I was released with 0.3 and that started G-CSF injections twice a week until 2 weeks ago. I now have another infection so they may drop back again .... who knows!!

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Have you read this post about Neutropenic sepsis?

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

I'd be thrilled to have such healthy levels as mine have averaged 1.1 over the past 7 years/50 blood tests. The highest they've been in that time is 1.9 and that was when I was ill with CMV. Infections can drive your neutrophil counts up as well as down.

While I hope you can at least maintain your current levels without the G-CSF injection, you don't need to be concerned provided they stay above 1.5. If they fall below that then you should take greater care to avoid infections and if they fall below 1, take particular care with food handling and your diet and definitely follow the neutropenic diet if they fall below 0.5:

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Neutrophils are only one measure of the health of your immune system. There's not much you can do about poorly functioning B-lymphocytes as that's a given with CLL, but you should also be aware of how healthy your immunoglobulin/antibody levels are (IgA, IgG, IgM) and take precautions if they are low.

See:

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

You'll gather from the feedback on that post, that blood counts are only a guide to how well your immune system is functioning. What really counts is how often you get infections, how serious they are and how long it takes to recover. The post below has lots of tips from members of our community on living with a compromised immune system:

healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Neil

[brad7]

neutrophil of count 2.4 is good