Cyclic Neutropenia

Updated on October 12, 2009
J.O. asks from Wellsville, NY
4 answers

Has any one ever had there child diagnosed with Cyclic neutropenia if so how did they diagnoses this. I'm not finding a lot on the web.

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R.S.

answers from New York on

I am a pediatrician. The diagnosis of cyclic neutropenia is sort of made retrospectively. If it is suspected, the child should get their blood drawn weekly to look at the white blood cell counts (WBC's). Over time, one can get a pattern of how the counts fluctuate (or "cycle" from high to low). Often the WBC's dip every 3 weeks or so. Because in kids, there are many things that cause these numbers to fluctuate, it can be a difficult diagnosis to make and it is often a diagnosis of exclusion -- that is, other things that are much more serious, such as cancers, sometimes have to be ruled out. In addition, clinical symptoms can point to cyclic neutropenia, such as a child who gets ill around the same time every month. By illness, that does not always mean the child is very sick; on the contrary, the child can be simply a little sniffly, have fever for a day or two, or get apthous ulcers (fever blisters) that come and go regularly. So fortunately, in most cases it is not a terribly dangerous diagnosis, since the WBC count rarely gets so low that the child is at risk for very serious infections (but please note that there IS a risk of serious infection, higher than the general population, even though it is low). Some people have no symtoms and live normal lives without ever knowing they even have the condition. As children age, the WBC's either don't cycle anymore or stay chronically on the low side of normal. If they are on the low side of normal, this may mean that they are still healthy like everyone else or get sick a little more often than others.

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P.K.

answers from New York on

It is usually suspected when a child gets sick often.
To confirm a diagnosis, it means blood work quite often
to watch to numbers. Can't remember if it is every week
or every month. I think it is diagnosed more today
because doctors do so much blood work as opposed to
years ago. When I look back I am sure my son would have
be diagnosed with it because he was always sick. However, today he is a 33 yo New York City firefighter.
In rare instances, it can be a problem.

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C.F.

answers from New York on

My brother's daughter (who is now 23 months old) had this diagnosed around the 8 month mark.

She was admitted to the hospital with a strep infection gone wild and they transferred her to a children's hospital. It took a week or two to get her diagnosed - they checked her for everything including leukemia. She's had several hospital visits since due to simple colds running amock. However, she's now doing much better and her neutrophil count is higher than it's ever been. They had said all along she would likely grow out of it by 5 and she's definitely trending that way.

To find more information I'd suggest using Google Scholar. You'll find more medical information in the form of research papers there. Run a search at... http://scholar.google.com/schhp?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&ta...

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K.J.

answers from New York on

Hi J.,
go to www.bing.com and type in cyclic neutropenia. Tons of sites come up. This one is a support website:
http://www.neutropenia.ca/about/index.html

I didn't view all the sites, but I'm sure there are some with signs/symptoms etc.

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