Expert: Neha Dahiya MD - 6/30/2009

Question
An 80 yr. old woman has a WBC of 130,000...86% bands...a month ago her WBC was 5000. What could be going on? There are no blasts...

Answer
Hello MJ



Any form of infection / fever / sore throat etc will lead to elevated values. In addition acute or chronic leukemia can cause such high elevation of WBC

The WBC is  elevated with increase in neutrophils and no blasts seen. May be due to some severe bacterial infection. Blasts are required for diagnosing acute leukemia. Further tests like bone marrow examination will be needed to confirm or rule out leukemia

These values are dynamic and any two tests are never the same. They have to be within the given range to be considered normal. If out side the range then further evaluation is needed.