In the article, we consider what it means when the monocytes in a child are lowered.
Monocytes in the baby’s body are divided into two main categories: marginal and circulating. The former are constantly present in the blood (twenty-five percent of all those formed in the bone marrow). Their value is determined when conducting general clinical blood tests. Marginal (seventy-five percent) are, first of all, those that remain in the brain. Their entry into the bloodstream is carried out with increased demand for these cells, for example, with acute inflammation. This helps to cope with pathological processes in the shortest possible time. As a rule, helminth infestations affect the balance of monocytes along with infection with protozoa in the form of Leishmania, amoeba, toxoplasma, and so on. This is a very important criterion that determines the further examination program for babies.
Very often in analyzes it is found that the monocytes in a child are lowered. What does this mean?
The role of monocytes in the children's body
Monocytes are one of the cells related to white blood. Unlike the same neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils, they do not contain granules, therefore they are called agranulocytes. This fact is based on the count in the analysis of blood cells. Monocytes serve as short-lived cells (this period usually ranges from one and a half to three days). Granulocytes for comparison usually live from one hundred to three hundred days.
What does it mean when lymphocytes are lowered, monocytes are elevated in a child? Let's figure it out.
Monocytes form in the bone marrow, and then enter the peripheral tissue. In it, these cells differentiate, as a rule, into macrophages. To perform the physiological function, they require the presence of oxygen, since it is necessary for the appearance of energy. Under anaerobic conditions, they can also function normally, but less efficiently. Usually this happens in the foci of purulent inflammation.
Receptors that are on the surface of monocytic macrophage cells recognize damaged cells along with microbes, pathological mediators, and so on. This serves as a trigger stimulus that activates a monocytic macrophage link. This may be accompanied by the formation of hydrogen peroxide, ion superoxide, hydroxide radical and the like. All these components provide immunity.
Is it dangerous when the monocytes in a child are lowered?
Fallout consequences
Monocytes in the child’s body perform diverse functions and their reduction is fraught with certain cavities:
- Weak fight against pathogenic bacteria.
- Inadequate regulation of the immune response and inflammatory reactions.
- Inadequate control of repair of damaged tissue.
- Weak antitumor effect.
- Violation of the regulation of bone marrow functions in the production of all blood cells.
- Poor digestion of defective cells.
Monocyte Norms
How to determine that the monocytes in a child are lowered. What are the norms?
The number of monocytes in the blood is constant throughout life. Therefore, the norms of such cells in adults and small patients are practically the same. The normative upper limit of their number is eleven percent in relation to other leukocytes. A decrease in monocytes of less than three percent is called monocytopenia, and an increase of more than eleven is already monocytosis.
It happens that lymphocytes are lowered, monocytes are elevated in a child. More on this below.
However, it is necessary to distinguish between absolute and relative monocytopenia. In absolute form, we are talking about the general value of cells of this type, that is, such a parameter is expressed in the number of monocytes per liter. Its normative boundary is 0.09 ∙ 10⁹ / l. A decrease in monocytes less than this value acts as absolute monocytopenia, and a growth of more than 0.6 ∙ 10⁹ / l is monocytosis.
Thus, the concept of absolute and relative monocytopenia coincides only when the percentage and total number of monocytic and macrophage cells decreases. They cannot coincide when there is a multidirectional decrease in monocytes. Typically, such an imbalance of the leukoformula may indicate an extremely severe condition in the child, requiring a longer examination and early treatment. Next, we’ll talk about the main factors that affect the decrease in the blood indicator in the body of the child.
Why are there reduced monocytes in a child?
Major causal decreases in children
Cases when the monocytes in a child are below normal are called monocytopenia in medicine. Typically, this is observed in the following conditions:
- Against the background of sepsis, there are reduced monocytes in the blood of a child, which is a difficult process due to the presence of pathogenic microbes in the body that circulate in the blood and enter different organs.
- The development of leukemia is a pathological multiplication of cells in the brain that simply do not have time to undergo differentiation, and therefore they do not perform the proper functions. They harm the body (we are talking about tumors of the hematopoietic system). Immature blood cells can affect various organs.
Now consider the symptoms of the described deviation.
Symptomatology
How is a condition manifested in which monocytes in the blood of a child lowered?
As a rule, these elements decrease against the background of an increase in the remaining leukocytes. In this regard, monocytopenia occurs in acute lymphoblastic or myeloid leukemia. However, this symptom is not a specific symptom, and only on its basis the diagnosis is never made. This is a concomitant manifestation that may or may not be. Symptoms may include the following:
- The appearance of anemia associated with inhibition of bone marrow function.
- The development of anemia associated with a deficiency of B12 or folic acid.
- The appearance of systemic lupus erythematosus, which is an autoimmune disease in which skin lesions are observed, affects the kidneys, and sometimes other organs.
It is important to note that the condition in which monocytes are reduced in a child is extremely serious. They indicate severe leukemic changes. Therefore, the level of these elements in the blood is a very important criterion that indicates the adequacy of therapy. A zero indicator of monocytes can even be life threatening and is incompatible with it. Such cells are an important indicator of a child’s immunity.
Lymphocytes are reduced in a child, monocytes are increased
In this case, the role of the cause may be:
- The presence of protein deficiency in nutrition.
- The lack of functioning of the bone marrow.
- The negative effect of radiation energy.
- The use of drugs that have a depressing effect on blood formation.
- The presence of immune deficiency.
- The development of infection with viruses exhibiting tropism for lymphocytes. In this case, we are talking about HIV, polio, measles and chickenpox, and so on.
- The occurrence of systemic inflammation of the connective tissue, in which antibodies against lymphocytes are formed.
- The influence of stressful conditions.
- Increased hormones in the blood that are secreted by the adrenal cortex.
Decreased lymphocytes and increased monocytes in a child should not go unnoticed.
What does it mean when monocytes and lymphocytes are simultaneously elevated?
Against the background of the penetration of foreign agents into the body, a triggering reaction of the immune response occurs. For this, the number of specific blood cells increases in comparison with the normal state. Protection of the immune system ensures the constancy of the internal environment of the child's body. This is achieved through the development of special substances against specific pathogens (antibodies) or the direct destruction of a foreign agent. Thus, an increase in the level of lymphocytes and monocytes in the bloodstream of a child occurs against the background of activation of its immune system.
Diagnostics
To identify the true reasons why the baby’s blood monocytes are lowered, a detailed analysis of different parameters of a general clinical blood test will be required:
- Determination of the quantitative content of leukocytes.
- The relative ratio of different types of leukocytes (we are talking about monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils).
- The absolute value of the element of the leukocyte formula.
- The study of the morphological structure of cells.
- The presence or absence of immature forms.
- The presence of a neutrophilic shift to the left, which is characterized by the predominance of functionally and morphologically unripe white blood cells.
- The presence or absence of blasts that can indicate the tumor nature of existing disorders.
Treatment
As already clear, no one treats reduced monocytes. Therapy should not be aimed at increasing the volume of these particles, but at eliminating the reason why the baby’s body does not resist the external threat as it should. In the event that this cause is an independent diagnosis (the development of sepsis, leukemia, etc.), then a low level of this element will help to identify it in time and, thus, the treatment will be successful.
When it comes to the consequences of what arose earlier, the doctor’s task should be to help the patient return to normal as quickly as possible. Sometimes for this it is enough only to prescribe the right diet along with general recommendations for lifestyle adjustment. In more difficult situations, drug therapy may be required (or, conversely, the urgent withdrawal of drugs that were previously prescribed), and sometimes surgical intervention is necessary.
Control analysis
As therapy progresses (whatever it may be), it is imperative that the child undergo a control blood test until all values return to normal, and after that for prevention at least at least once every six months. Immunity is the most valuable for a person of all that nature has endowed with him, and in no case can one joke with him.
Conclusion
Thus, reduced blood monocytes in children are not a very normal phenomenon, but at the same time, this is far from always critical. Suffice it to say that it is precisely in infants that the deviation from the norm in the volume of cells of this type is often smaller. Everything is explained very simply: a young and immature organism can still not fully cope with the challenges it has to face daily.
Sometimes this indicator is actually associated with the presence of a serious pathology, but sometimes it can turn out to be a banal consequence of infections or injuries. Therefore, the main thing is, of course, not to panic, but to help the doctor establish the true causes of the deviation and prescribe the correct and competent treatment.
We examined situations in which monocytes are elevated and monocytes are reduced in a child.