A QUICK LESSON IN BLOOD COUNTS...
Red blood cells
or erythrocytes comprise a third of all the cells in the human body.
With about 20 trillion in the average adult, they're not only the most
common cells in the human body, they are also the only cells that don't
have a nuclei. The red blood cells' primary function is to carry oxygen
to the body's tissues, and because they are 40 percent lighter than they
would be with nuclei, it is easier for the heart to pump them through
the circulatory system.
Red cells contain a molecule called hemoglobin, which picks up oxygen as the cells travel through the blood vessels in the lungs. After red cells leave the lungs they get distributed throughout the body, passing through ever-smaller vessels called arterioles and capillaries. There they get forced up against the vessel walls like passengers in a crowded subway train. Under that pressure, the oxygen molecules pop off the hemoglobin and get taken into the vessel walls and passed on to neighboring cells. Relieved of their burden, the red cells pick up carbon dioxide, which they then carry back through the veins to the lungs to be exchanged for new loads of oxygen.
Red cells contain a molecule called hemoglobin, which picks up oxygen as the cells travel through the blood vessels in the lungs. After red cells leave the lungs they get distributed throughout the body, passing through ever-smaller vessels called arterioles and capillaries. There they get forced up against the vessel walls like passengers in a crowded subway train. Under that pressure, the oxygen molecules pop off the hemoglobin and get taken into the vessel walls and passed on to neighboring cells. Relieved of their burden, the red cells pick up carbon dioxide, which they then carry back through the veins to the lungs to be exchanged for new loads of oxygen.
White blood cells or leukocytes, are the body's border defense:
they are responsible for apprehending and eliminating foreign
substances. They're larger but much less numerous than red blood cells,
numbering about 20 million in the adult body. While red cells are buoyed
along like cargo rafts as the heart pumps the serum, white cells
function more like patrol boats. Under their own locomotion, they can
change direction to go after an invading molecule or cell.
There are three basic types of white cells-granulocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes-each with its own specialized tasks. Granulocytes, the first line of defense, home in on bacteria or any other foreign substance in the blood. They are filled with granules containing chemicals that destroy their prey. One type of granulocyte, the neutrophil, is an all-purpose search-and-destroy agent that makes up 60 percent of white blood cells. The other two granulocytes, eosinophils and basophils apprehend special intruders such as allergens and parasites and account for 3 percent of the white blood cell population.
About 33 percent of white cells are lymphocytes, the brains of the immune system. They send out antibodies to immobilize foreign molecules and chemical messengers that spur other cells into action. The remaining 4 percent of white blood cells are monocytes, which clean up cellular debris and devour invaders that have been tagged with antibodies. (Like what happens to the red blood cells, platelets and sometimes white blood cells themselves in Evans syndrome when they have been tagged with antibodies.)
There are three basic types of white cells-granulocytes, monocytes and lymphocytes-each with its own specialized tasks. Granulocytes, the first line of defense, home in on bacteria or any other foreign substance in the blood. They are filled with granules containing chemicals that destroy their prey. One type of granulocyte, the neutrophil, is an all-purpose search-and-destroy agent that makes up 60 percent of white blood cells. The other two granulocytes, eosinophils and basophils apprehend special intruders such as allergens and parasites and account for 3 percent of the white blood cell population.
About 33 percent of white cells are lymphocytes, the brains of the immune system. They send out antibodies to immobilize foreign molecules and chemical messengers that spur other cells into action. The remaining 4 percent of white blood cells are monocytes, which clean up cellular debris and devour invaders that have been tagged with antibodies. (Like what happens to the red blood cells, platelets and sometimes white blood cells themselves in Evans syndrome when they have been tagged with antibodies.)
Platelets, so named because they are shaped like tiny plates,
release chemicals that promote clotting when blood vessels are broken.
These chemicals work by assembling a blood protein called fibrin into a
meshwork over the damaged area. The mesh serves as a net to trap blood
cells and proteins, which eventually form a plug in the damaged vessel
wall.
The meaning of the numbers: A complete blood count involves
computing the number of red cells, the percentage of red cells in the
whole blood, the size of the average red cell (an indication of its
robustness), the average amount of hemoglobin per red cell, and how much
there is in the blood. In addition, a physician will want to calculate
the total number of white cells and the percentages of the different
types of white blood cells, which can be distinguished under a
microscope by the shapes of their nuclei. A physician will compare the
numbers of cells in a sample of a patient's blood, with the average
number of cells in the same amount of blood from a healthy person.
Having too few red blood cells or too little hemoglobin is called
anemia. Having too few white blood cells is a sign that a person's
immune system is not functioning properly. Too many white blood cells
usually means that the patient has an infection. The type of white cell
that is over produced can indicate the extent of infection. An increase
in the number of neutrophils, for example, means the person probably has
a bacterial infection. An increase in lymphocytes and basophils usually
corresponds to an allergic reaction like what you might get from
ragweed. If there are far too many white blood cells-in the neighborhood
of 100,000-the patient may have leukemia. A physician will also look at
the number of platelets in the specimen to assess if the patient may
have too few or too many.
While normal values vary slightly from institution to institution, the following values are within the accepted range of normal:
While normal values vary slightly from institution to institution, the following values are within the accepted range of normal:
- Red blood cells 4 -5.3 million/mm3
- Hemoglobin 11 - 14.5g/dl
- Hematocrit 34-42%
- White blood cells 4,000-13,000/mm3
- Platelets 150,000 to 400,000/mm3
PROFILE OF A CHILD WITH EVANS SYNDROME
Katie
was diagnosed with Evans syndrome when she was 13 months old. For the
five months prior to her diagnosis she had been noted to have a lot of
bruising of her arms and legs. They were just small bruises most of the
time and because she was getting older and was crawling and learning to
pull up, they were attributed, by her doctor, to bumping herself. During
those same five months Katie had a low grade fever every day. Her
temperature rose to 99.6 to 100.6 every evening. She was cutting teeth,
so it was assumed that that was the cause of her fevers. She had one
virus and stomach flu after another with rarely ten days of good health
before being struck by something else. It was odd because Katie didn't
attend day care and wasn't out in public very much so it was hard to
imagine where she was being exposed to all of these "bugs". Both my
husband and myself were lucky enough to be able to stay home with her
full time at that time, as we had adopted Katie after ten years of
adoption attempts, and she was the center of our universe. We weren't
bringing "bugs" home from work.
On her "well baby check up" at 12 months, I had again complained to her doctor that something did not seem right with her. My concerns were passed off as "normal baby problems and nothing to be concerned about." We returned to the doctor's one month later and I insisted that blood work be done at the hospital, as I knew something was very wrong. Despite a normal assessment by the pediatrician, he wrote orders for the blood work and we headed for the hospital with the understanding that he would call me later that day with the results.
Once home from having the blood work done, Katie was crawling on our living room rug and bumped her front tooth. She started to bleed and although the bump had only been minor, we could not get the bleeding to stop. She continued to ooze for an hour when I called the doctor to report my concerns and ask about the lab results.
A few calls later and the doctor was on the line telling me that he thought she had leukemia and that the pathologist who had reviewed the blood work thought that she had some type of bone marrow tumors. Her platelets, red cells and white cells were all so very low that she was rushed to the local hospital for stabilization and then transferred to the university hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
After bone marrow biopsy results showed normal but increased activity, the cancers were ruled out and the diagnosis of Evans syndrome was made. Katie has been treated with steroids both IV in crisis and by mouth routinely since. She used to spend almost a week per month in the hospital with infections, sepsis or crisis status blood levels. After three and a half years of that, I started begging her doctors to try something different. I am a registered nurse and had by then spent a lot of time investigating Evans syndrome and the best ways to treat it. I was convinced that if we tried giving her the immune globulin (IVIG) routinely instead of waiting until her levels crashed, that we might make some progress. Finally in the spring of 1995, they agreed to let me try my theory.
Katie had an infusaport placed which is a type of permanent IV line that goes into a big vessel in the body and is under the skin so normal activities like swimming don't affect it. I started giving her the IVIG at home every three weeks, sometimes every two when her levels would drop more or if she started to get sick. For Katie this was the magic ticket. Until 1998, Katie did not require any hospital stays for infections or crisis levels. That' s not to say that she hasn't been sick, but we've been able to manage her at home. She still has blood work done every week to see how she's doing. Katie is now eight years old. She is in home school became she has poor endurance and has too many problems with low white blood cell counts to be able to fight the normal childhood illnesses she would be exposed to in school. She has a few friends that she loves to see and spends many hours each day playing on her computer. She loves to be out in public with people, and she does get out, but we try to keep her out of anywhere crowded and away from anyone sick. Very tough during flu season!Katie's Evans syndrome was triggered by her DPT immunizations when she was an infant. She had violent reactions to the three rounds that she got, and began with the symptoms (bruising and fevers) of her Evans syndrome within a week of her last immunization. She also had a grand mal seizure and respiratory arrest six hours after her last immunization. When she was diagnosed, I was told that I would never find another child with Evans syndrome and unfortunately, I have found more than 25. Another little boy diagnosed with Evans syndrome around the same time as Katie, I discovered received the very same lot number of DPT vaccine that Katie got!I have done hours and hours of research on this subject, and have found documentation in all of the hematology and immunology textbooks, that the DPT vaccine and some of it's preservatives and additives that make it work better (thimerosal and aluminum salts), have all been found to be related to thrombocytopenia and hemolytic anemia. I do not mention this for the purpose of upsetting anyone, or to convince anyone that their case of Evans syndrome is also related to vaccines, because it may or may not be. It is merely food for thought.
~Lou Addington, mother
On her "well baby check up" at 12 months, I had again complained to her doctor that something did not seem right with her. My concerns were passed off as "normal baby problems and nothing to be concerned about." We returned to the doctor's one month later and I insisted that blood work be done at the hospital, as I knew something was very wrong. Despite a normal assessment by the pediatrician, he wrote orders for the blood work and we headed for the hospital with the understanding that he would call me later that day with the results.
Once home from having the blood work done, Katie was crawling on our living room rug and bumped her front tooth. She started to bleed and although the bump had only been minor, we could not get the bleeding to stop. She continued to ooze for an hour when I called the doctor to report my concerns and ask about the lab results.
A few calls later and the doctor was on the line telling me that he thought she had leukemia and that the pathologist who had reviewed the blood work thought that she had some type of bone marrow tumors. Her platelets, red cells and white cells were all so very low that she was rushed to the local hospital for stabilization and then transferred to the university hospital for further evaluation and treatment.
After bone marrow biopsy results showed normal but increased activity, the cancers were ruled out and the diagnosis of Evans syndrome was made. Katie has been treated with steroids both IV in crisis and by mouth routinely since. She used to spend almost a week per month in the hospital with infections, sepsis or crisis status blood levels. After three and a half years of that, I started begging her doctors to try something different. I am a registered nurse and had by then spent a lot of time investigating Evans syndrome and the best ways to treat it. I was convinced that if we tried giving her the immune globulin (IVIG) routinely instead of waiting until her levels crashed, that we might make some progress. Finally in the spring of 1995, they agreed to let me try my theory.
Katie had an infusaport placed which is a type of permanent IV line that goes into a big vessel in the body and is under the skin so normal activities like swimming don't affect it. I started giving her the IVIG at home every three weeks, sometimes every two when her levels would drop more or if she started to get sick. For Katie this was the magic ticket. Until 1998, Katie did not require any hospital stays for infections or crisis levels. That' s not to say that she hasn't been sick, but we've been able to manage her at home. She still has blood work done every week to see how she's doing. Katie is now eight years old. She is in home school became she has poor endurance and has too many problems with low white blood cell counts to be able to fight the normal childhood illnesses she would be exposed to in school. She has a few friends that she loves to see and spends many hours each day playing on her computer. She loves to be out in public with people, and she does get out, but we try to keep her out of anywhere crowded and away from anyone sick. Very tough during flu season!Katie's Evans syndrome was triggered by her DPT immunizations when she was an infant. She had violent reactions to the three rounds that she got, and began with the symptoms (bruising and fevers) of her Evans syndrome within a week of her last immunization. She also had a grand mal seizure and respiratory arrest six hours after her last immunization. When she was diagnosed, I was told that I would never find another child with Evans syndrome and unfortunately, I have found more than 25. Another little boy diagnosed with Evans syndrome around the same time as Katie, I discovered received the very same lot number of DPT vaccine that Katie got!I have done hours and hours of research on this subject, and have found documentation in all of the hematology and immunology textbooks, that the DPT vaccine and some of it's preservatives and additives that make it work better (thimerosal and aluminum salts), have all been found to be related to thrombocytopenia and hemolytic anemia. I do not mention this for the purpose of upsetting anyone, or to convince anyone that their case of Evans syndrome is also related to vaccines, because it may or may not be. It is merely food for thought.
~Lou Addington, mother
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