Articles on Medical Diseases and Conditions

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic disease whose most prominent symptom is inflammation of joints. The small joints of the hands and feet, especially the proximal interphalangeal joints, are most frequently affected; involvement of larger joints of the extremities is somewhat less frequent, and occasionally nonextremity joints may be affected. Polyarticular involvement is much […]

Basophilia is most frequently found in chronic myelogenous leukemia. Basophils may be increased in the other “myeloproliferative” diseases and occasionally in certain nonmalignant conditions.

Inflammation is the most frequent condition associated with neutrophilic leukocytosis. Besides an increase in total neutrophil count, there often is some degree of immaturity (“shift to the left”*). Usually a shift to the left involves an increase in the early segmented and the band neutrophil stages. Occasionally even some earlier cells (metamyelocytes or even myelocytes) […]

At birth, there is a leukocytosis of 18,000-22,000/ mm3 (18-22 Ч 109/L) for the first 1-3 days. This drops sharply at 3-4 days to levels between 8,000 and 16,000/mm3. At roughly 6 months, approximately adult levels are reached, although the upper limit of normal is more flexible. Although the postnatal period is associated with neutrophilia, […]

Normal WBC maturation sequence begins with the blast form, derived from hematopoietic stem cells that, in turn, are thought to be derived from tissue reticulum cells (Fig. 6-1). In the myelocytic (granulocytic or neutrophilic) series, the blast is characterized by a large nucleus with delicate very uniform-appearing light-staining chromatin and with one or more nucleoli. […]