Neutropenia - 'Normal' for ME?

[Advokate]

Hi everyone,

I've done a search of the forum but can't really see any personal experiences, so I'll ask my specific question here.

Kate has recently had some bloods done (last set December) and her neutrophils are VERY low. She's had ME for approximately 26 years and been very severe for around 7 of those (bed bound, currently unable to eat at all, surviving on IV amino acids and glucose at present). Yet this has never shown up in her bloods before - in fact they've usually come back normal.

Other results all look ok*. Neutrophils were fine in December.

The doctor immediately jumped to talk of cancer due to the very sudden drop from 65.6% to 22.9% and suggested a bone marrow biopsy (not possible in her current state) but we wondered if this is something that often happens in patients with severe ME? Normal range is 40-80%.

*She's also recently had, and is still recovering from, a nasty flu virus. Lymphocytes are high (65%, previous 25.8%, normal range 20-40%) which is to be expected.

Any info or personal experiences appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hip]

She's also recently had, and is still recovering from, a nasty flu virus.

This paper says neutropenia was found in 18% of hospitalized patients with influenza B, and in 10% with influenza A.

 

[Thinktank]

What are her absolute numbers? Percentage is just relative. And how about her other cells like eosinophils, basophils etc.? Those can skew the numbers too if elevated. I once suffered from hyper-eosinophilia, the percentage went above 20% with a high IgE count, so that really changed the % of neutrophils and lymphocytes.

My absolute neutrophils count has been low-normal and absolute lymphocyte count has been high-normal since becoming sick. But in percentages neutrophil is low and lymphocyte is high.
They too thought that i suffered from cancer, had bone marrow biopsy, scans with trace isotopes etc. All negative....
"I'm so sorry, i believe you have lymphoma!" Scared me to death for 4 weeks until all tests were done. Incompetent ^*^$*^$&#&^$!!!!!

 

[Mary]

She might have a copper deficiency: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22080848
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/minerals/copper

Low copper affects just about everything, including energy production

My WBC count has been low for many years. A recent hair analysis showed copper at the bottom of the normal range. I should probably have more testing done (e.g., ceruloplasmin) When I can work up the energy to try to persuade my nurse practitioner to do it, I will.