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Any insight on these lymphocyte results?

JoanDublin

Senior Member
Messages
369
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Hi folks

Its been a while since I posted. Quick update. My son was diagnosed with ME back in 2012 when he was 12 years of age and he is now 16 and still very ill and unable for any school or life outside of the house. Anyway, recently I got to see an Infectious Disease Specialist who ran some blood tests and I wonder if anyone could advise, in their opinion, what they think they could mean. He says there is indication of his body fighting something but as yet he hasnt identified what that is. Any insight would be much appreciated. We saw a rheumatologist yesterday who said that they probably dont mean anything...which seemed a bit odd to me

Incidentially, he also tested positive for past EBV and CMV viral infections and low Iron and Folate


CD3 Total 2341* cells/ul Range (1400-2000)
CD8-Suppr 630 cells/ul Range (600-900)
CD8% 18* % Range (27-35)
CD4-Helper 1621* cells/ul Range (700-1100)
CD4% 47* % Range (33-41)
CD19-Bcell 711* cells/ul Range (300-500)
CD19% 28* % Range (12 - 22)
H/S Ratio 2.57* Range (1.10 - 1.40)
 

Jonathan Edwards

"Gibberish"
Messages
5,256
Hi folks

Its been a while since I posted. Quick update. My son was diagnosed with ME back in 2012 when he was 12 years of age and he is now 16 and still very ill and unable for any school or life outside of the house. Anyway, recently I got to see an Infectious Disease Specialist who ran some blood tests and I wonder if anyone could advise, in their opinion, what they think they could mean. He says there is indication of his body fighting something but as yet he hasnt identified what that is. Any insight would be much appreciated. We saw a rheumatologist yesterday who said that they probably dont mean anything...which seemed a bit odd to me

Incidentially, he also tested positive for past EBV and CMV viral infections and low Iron and Folate


CD3 Total 2341* cells/ul Range (1400-2000)
CD8-Suppr 630 cells/ul Range (600-900)
CD8% 18* % Range (27-35)
CD4-Helper 1621* cells/ul Range (700-1100)
CD4% 47* % Range (33-41)
CD19-Bcell 711* cells/ul Range (300-500)
CD19% 28* % Range (12 - 22)
H/S Ratio 2.57* Range (1.10 - 1.40)


I think the rheumatologist is probably right about these not meaning anything - or at least not being helpful in making a diagnosis. The shifts in cell subpopulations may be due to some specific disease (other than ME since as far as we know ME does not produce any consistent changes) but lymphocyte subpopulations do not tend to help much unless they are very low as in AIDS or vey high.

It is important to realise that these numbers do not reflect how many cells are present in the immune system. If there are more CD4 T cells in a blood sample that does not mean the person has an excess of CD4 T cells. The blood sample simply indicates how many cells are passing through the blood at any one time. For instance, steroids are anti-inflammatory drugs but they increase the number of inflammatory neutrophils in the blood because the neutrophils become 'lazy' and hang around in blood longer. In certain autoimmune diseases, despite their being many too many cells in lymph modes or spleen the subpopulations in blood tend to be normal or even low.


As always, if someone is seriously ill without a good explanation then further investigation is important to consider and hopefully both the infectious disease specialist and the rheumatologist will try to cover all options but I doubt these tests will point to anything specific.
 

JoanDublin

Senior Member
Messages
369
Location
Dublin, Ireland
I think the rheumatologist is probably right about these not meaning anything - or at least not being helpful in making a diagnosis. The shifts in cell subpopulations may be due to some specific disease (other than ME since as far as we know ME does not produce any consistent changes) but lymphocyte subpopulations do not tend to help much unless they are very low as in AIDS or vey high.

It is important to realise that these numbers do not reflect how many cells are present in the immune system. If there are more CD4 T cells in a blood sample that does not mean the person has an excess of CD4 T cells. The blood sample simply indicates how many cells are passing through the blood at any one time. For instance, steroids are anti-inflammatory drugs but they increase the number of inflammatory neutrophils in the blood because the neutrophils become 'lazy' and hang around in blood longer. In certain autoimmune diseases, despite their being many too many cells in lymph modes or spleen the subpopulations in blood tend to be normal or even low.


As always, if someone is seriously ill without a good explanation then further investigation is important to consider and hopefully both the infectious disease specialist and the rheumatologist will try to cover all options but I doubt these tests will point to anything specific.

Thank you for those insights. The infectious disease doc has put him on a three month trial of three different antibiotics on the basis that there is a chance his body is fighting a bacterial infection, even though so far no specific infection that he's tested for has shown up. I guess at least he is trying something which is better than doing nothing. After nearly four years we are no further along with answers or any treatment options elsewhere, so it has to be worth a shot.

He got similar tests carried out by this doc a few months ago and his numbers have all pretty much increased (when they were originally high out of range anyway) and decreased (when they were originally low out of range) so I suppose there is at least some consistency which to the doc indicates it's worth giving the anti biotic therapy a trial.

Again thanks for responding. It's much appreciated.