Drugs that increase white blood cell (WBC) count include corticosteroids, colony-stimulating factors (like filgrastim/Neupogen), beta-agonists (like albuterol), epinephrine, and lithium, which work by stimulating bone marrow or releasing stored WBCs into the bloodstream; doctors also use growth factors to treat low counts, often in cancer patients.
Drugs that may increase WBC counts include epinephrine, allopurinol, aspirin, chloroform, heparin, quinine, corticosteroids, and triamterene.
Filgrastim injection products (Neupogen, Nivestym, Releuko, Zarxio) are also used to help increase the number of white blood cells, and decrease the length of time with fever in people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML; a type of cancer of the white blood cells) who are receiving treatment with chemotherapy medications.
When your child has too many white blood cells, it's called leukocytosis. Leukocytosis may be a sign of an infection, inflammation or another everyday medical issue. In other cases, it may be due to an immune disorder or blood disease.
Despite the known mechanisms leading to leukocytosis, our thorough review found no evidence or mention of proven causality between vomiting and leukocytosis, other than sepsis.
Gastroenteritis, or stomach flu, is an inflammation of the digestive tract and may cause a high white blood cell count.
Common leukemia signs and symptoms include:
A high white blood cell count usually means one of the following has increased the making of white blood cells:
More information about the symptoms
The mean WBC count increased with increasing severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety among men. Male participants with severe depression had significantly higher values of RDW (p < 0.001); however, this relationship was less marked among women (p = 0.004).
Causes of White Blood Cell Disorders
Certain medicines, including lithium, corticosteroids and beta-agonists.
Stress can lead to an increase in red blood cells, neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) and platelets.
The long-term pattern of prednisone-induced leukocytosis was examined in 80 patients. Our results disclosed an extremely variable leukocytic response, in which the white blood cell count surpassed 20,000/mm3 as early as the first day of treatment, an increase that persisted for the duration of therapy.
Dehydration can cause hemoconcentration, raising the overall WBC count.
Sometimes, a high white blood cell count is accompanied by anemia (a low red blood cell count). This happens when bone marrow disease that's causing overproduction of white blood cells also causes underproduction of red blood cells.
Stage 1 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and enlarged lymph nodes. Stage 2 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and is anemic. He or she may also have enlarged lymph nodes. Stage 3 – A patient has high levels of white blood cells and is anemic.
Acute myeloid leukemia
People are usually diagnosed after age 45. AML is most common in people after age 65.
Leukemia is commonly misdiagnosed as the following conditions:
Disorders related to having a high white blood count include: Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, conditions that cause the immune system to attack healthy tissues. Bacterial or viral infections. Cancers such as leukemia and Hodgkin disease.
Your white blood cell count may be high because your body is fighting an infection. But other things can cause it, such as some medicines, burns, an illness, or other health problems.
A high white blood cell count can be a sign of cancer, such as leukemia or lymphoma. However, this symptom is not specific to cancer and can occur for many other reasons, such as infection, inflammation, stress, allergies and immune disorders.
Some people with leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes have bone or joint pain. This bone pain is most often felt in the long bones of the arms and legs, in the ribs, and in the breastbone.
Leukemia symptoms include: Weakness, tiredness and fatigue. This can be caused by the leukemia itself or by the low levels of hemoglobin seen in many leukemia patients. Fever and frequent infections due to low counts of healthy white blood cells.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is often a silent disease during the initial stages, with many patients having no noticeable symptoms. CLL is commonly detected by accident when routine blood testing reveals an elevated lymphocyte count (lymphocytosis).