How we diagnose and treat neutropenia in adults

ABSTRACT

Neutropenias (NPs), being acute and often transient, or chronic, range from life-threatening conditions with very low absolute neutrophil blood counts (ANC) to disorders characterized by only mild NP and of no obvious significance for health. Many are caused by genetic variations/mutations, e.g. the benign familial NP and the chronic severe NPs (e.g. Kostmann disease). Some of the latter are associated with various bodily malformations. Many of the mild-to-moderate NPs are signs of underlying disorders that need specialized treatments (e.g. HIV, hepatitis, autoimmune disorders, the large granular lymphocyte syndrome). We provide here means for the evaluation of a previously unknown NP, suggest a triage and treatments.

KEYWORDS:

• Neutropenia
• agranulocytosis
• large granular lymphocytosis
• adverse drug reactions
• G-CSF
• plerixafor
• severe chronic neutropenia
• autoimmune neutropenia
• idiopathic neutropenia

Financial & competing interests disclosure

J Palmblad is a consultant for ApoPharma (Cananda) and AstraZeneca (Sweden). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Supplemental Material

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