Myasthenia Gravis Support Group

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Although myasthenia gravis may affect any voluntary muscle, muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, and...

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chuckie1 12/19/2013

Has any one had elevated wbc with all other labs normal?I go to the V.A. in northern Indiana and my doctor there keeps telling me to talk to my neuro which i have and they say find the infection!
Any thing I can do to help my V.A. doc!1
Yes I have had blood cultures and ua my chest xray they say is normal but there is white in the lung feild which is not normal.
thanks
Chuck

joefnh 12/19/2013

Chuck it is quite normal for your WBC to be elevated when you are fighting off an infection of any type. Basically the WBC will go up in response to the threat that a virus or bacterium poses as that is your immune systems way of 'rallying the troops'

The WBC can also be elevated in certain autoimmune conditions.

Joe

SeattleWriter 12/19/2013

Are you taking any steroids? I just had some labs today, and my doctor mentioned that my wbc may turn up a little higher because of the prednisone.

chuckie1 12/19/2013

I am on prednisone and Imuran but my wbc went from 13.4 to 15.3 after a round of antibiotics

clark01 12/19/2013

chuck
my wbc is 40 to 50. I am a high dose of prednisone. Do you have an oncologists.

joefnh 12/20/2013

Clark & Chuck, I believe the difference noted here is one of the units the lab used in reporting your results. One of the typical units used is the number of white blood cells per cubic microliter, different labs do occasionally report their results using different units.

As the standard range is 4.0k to 10.0k WBC per cubic microliter, where 'k' means thousand

Clark I suspect yours to be 4.0k to 5.0k white blood cells per cubic microliter which is a good number. I usually run about 4.1k and I am on Imuran, when I am off of Imuran I run about 7.0k

Chuck you are showing 13.4k 15.3k sounds like you are running an infection or are having an abnormal reaction to something. Having a WBC up around 14.0k is a very typical response of your body fighting off an infection. The last time I had diverticulitis my counts were right around 13.8k. Certainly I would make sure the abnormal chest x-ray is pursued.

clark01 12/21/2013

Joe mine is 40 to 50 k. I was dx with CLL 4 years ago. The CLL along with the MG and High dose of steroids are some of the reasons my WBC is so high. That is the reason I ask Chuck if he had seen an oncologist.

clark01 12/21/2013

Actually is was 43.3k this past Thursday.

ahpotts72 12/21/2013

Risk of secondary infection and malignancy is significant with Imuran. Your prednisone can and may be contributing to the elevated WBC as well. Have they scanned any other part of your body for infections? Specifically, sinus, tonsils, or ear infections? You can alos make sure that you don't have any ingrown toenails, skin infections, boils, cysts, etc. Leave no stone unturned in this search. I would absolutely look into the abnormal chest images. I would have those repeated to make sure that it wasn't a technical issue and to try and figure out what the white spots are. You don't want that kind of thing sitting out there any longer than you have to. I hope that you can find some answers. Please keep us updated on your status. I'm very interested in knowing what is causing this. I hope they find the infection soon as well. Merry Christmas

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