White Bloodcell Count

[Colt]

Do people with crohn's usually have an elevated white blood cell count? Those not on immunosuppressants of course. It's an immune response and I've had a high count quite often so I was kind of wondering if it was just me or if it was an indicator for crohn's.

 

[BWS1982]

This isn't definitive, but figure I'll add an answer for now until someone with a more concrete response arrives: I've read (not seen on my own counts) that it's common with Crohns, but of course this is just me reading it somewhere, take it with a grain of salt.

 

[D Bergy]

All of my life doctors have mentioned my elevated white blood cell count. I just figured it was some anomaly, like my low pulse rate.

Now I have a better idea why it was high. It will be interesting to see if it is lower now.

Dan

 

[Jeff D.]

My guess would be that Crohn's is an inflammatory disease and because of the inflammation the body sends white blood cells to the area to heal it causing a raise in white blood cell count, at least that's what the scientist in me says.

 

[drew_wymore]

Yea your WBC can be elevated with Crohns, thats when my GI started really believing I was sick. He explained that its high because as Jeff said the body is creating white cells in response to the inflammatory process going on in your body, or so my thats how my GI explained it. Also those on Prednisone will have elevated counts according to my doc.

A note about immunosuppressants. I was on Imuran along with Pred and my white count was still high. You would think that they would cancel each other out but apparently don't, at least in my case.

Smoking will also marginally raise your white count. Mine has always been around 11,000 when I started getting really sick it jumped to 24,000

 

[AgB621]

Well this answers my question. I've had a high white count for as long as I can remember.

Drew, my white count is about the same as yours, between 11,000 and 13,000 normally and when I got sick, it was 27,000. But did you have an infection or was it just a Crohn's flare-up? Because my doctor is convinced I had C. Difficile or some such infection that triggered the Crohn's and put me on Vancomycin for 7 weeks, which definitely helped. I can't help but wonder though, what are the chances that what I had was JUST a flare-up and no infection at all? Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[pennywanna]

When I was first in the diagnosing stages, that is the first thing they were looking for along with fevers, but me...doc were scratching there head because sometimes my fever would spike and normal white cell count. Or my white count high and no fevers...Yep, I am NOT normal.:yrolleyes:

 

[Keara07]

AgB621- interesting - although CD symptoms go way back previous to dx in Dec, I had C Diff Xmas 06 and it took 4 months to get rid of - three antibiotics and a round of Vancomycin as well. Then got and *ulcer* they said, but it was Chron's all along - no ulcer ever showed on tests. Was told though that C Diff can be a result of Chron's - a symptom of a flare so can have it, needs treating, but can come on without any reason. Sorry for the hijack on that train of thought guys.

My white blood cell count has always been pretty normal even with the full blockage and ballooned bowel - go figure.

 

[Kev]

I think these anomalies are all too frequent with IBD, which may explain why docs have a hard time diagnosing it, or are fast at writing it off as IBS. Think about it, they look at bloodwork with normal WBC, in a patient who isn't displaying a fever at the time, but complains of aches N diarhea... no indicators of inflamatory bowel disease. As to why... Good question. But the fact that this disease is caused by/responsible for a 'wacky' immune response... maybe the extent to which it is able to fool the body does some pretty big pendulum swings at times. Food for thought... Think many a stardard GP/family medicine physician, or emergency room staff, COULD be fooled by this pretty darned easy. Most GI's just learned from experience that these tests or markers don't always tell the whole story (And, no pun intended... else I wouldn't have spelled whole with a W, right?)