What can cause an elevated wbc count?

Question

Im currently 32w4d pregnant. At about 30 weeks I went to the hospital with a terrible migraine and swelling in my hands. MY BP turned out to be fine and they monitored me and the baby was fine. When the nurse took my blood, she said that my white blood cell count was at about 19000 (10000 is the normal max). As usual, they ask have you been sick, had a cold, or any kind of infection. No I havent been. As a matter of fact, my wbc seems to always be elevated and no Dr. is ever able to tell me why!!! Its frustrating!!! Anyone ever have this prob? What can I do???

Answer 1

Normal white blood cells count is lower than 10K (or less than 10.5/microlitre)

A litttle trivia on this subject matter as you stated you always had an elevated WBC:

Elevated white blood cell (WBC) count is associated with an increased risk for cancer, and that risk may be less in persons taking aspirin, according to the results of a large cohort study reported in the January 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine

The authors suggest that aspirin may have a greater protective effect against cancer for those with high WBC, because the risk for cancer death was higher for those with high WBC who did not take aspirin weekly than for those who did

These data provide important new epidemiological evidence of an essential link between inflammation and cancer mortality," the authors conclude. "Our findings suggest that local inflammatory processes that have long been known to be associated with tumor progression may be reflected in the systemic inflammatory marker of higher WBC count.

But don't be alarmed : I'm not saying you have cancer.  

A slightly elevated WBC count is not at all unusual during pregnancy:

Q: Would a high white blood cell count cause problems with

pregnancy? What causes it?

A: A high white count can be normal because of the pregnancy.

And it depends how high it is. With an infection there is often an

elevated white count. In and by itself it doesn't necessarily mean

much unless you find out why it's elevated and how much it's

elevated."

WebMD Chat with Amos Grunebaum, MD.

http://webmd.lycos.com/content/article/6...

It's probably nothing at all, and I can't imagine why your doctor

would have mentioned leukemia!  Everyone knows that new moms worry

about EVERYTHING!  (Clearly, your OB forgot this.)

Reasonable things it could be:

-- bladder infection

-- urinary tract infection

-- other simple infection (like an ingrown toe-nail or an infected

cut)

Any of these is enough to slightly increase your WBC count, and of

them, the most common affliction during pregnancy is the urinary tract

or bladder infection:

"Technicians also check the urine for an elevated white blood cell

count, which could signal disease or infection of the kidney or

bladder.

Infection - An elevated white-blood cell count indicates that a woman

has an infection in her body."

What Can I Expect At The Doctor's Office?

http://health.yahoo.com/health/centers/p...

According to medical resource site MedLine, physical or emotional

stress can also contribute to a high WBC count:

"Acute emotional or physical stress can increase WBC counts."

MedlinePlus - WBC Counts

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/...

What could be more physically or emotionally stressful than being

pregnant in the middle of one of the hottest, most uncomfortable

summers in recent memory?

If your doctor isn't worried about your WBC levels, you probably

shouldn't worry either.  Obviously, she's keeping an eye on things,

else she wouldn't have done another blood test.  Relax, have yourself

a deep breath, and drink lots of fluids to help fend off UTIs and

similar unpleasantness. (The more you pee, the harder it is for

bacteria to cling to your urinary tract and cause infections.

Commonly, WBC counts can be elevated in the setting of infection, inflammation, physiologic stress or medication use. An example of physiologic stress is vomiting. A medication that raises the white count is prednisone.

The WBC count gives very little if no information regarding the presence or severity of acute infection. It is an adjunctive test that must be considered in the context of everything else that is happening with the patient. It is often over ordered, over analyzed and over interpreted.

That being said, what is importent is your clinical appearance (sick or healthy), symptoms (earache, fever) and response to treatment, if any is given. The white count has no predictive value in saying how bad the or how the infection will respond to treatment.

The vast majority of patients can be treated safely and correctly without the white count ever being known. In the acute care setting (doctor's visit or ER visit), the only thing a white count is good for is to diagnosis leukemia or neutropenia. For everything else it is a number and doctors shouldn't treat numbers, they should treat patients.

Sorry for the lengthy reply.  I just wanted to cover all the issues.

Answer 2

after your pregnancy you may want to consult with a hematologist, someone who specializes in blood disorders.  

Answer 3

i agree with the person above. you may want to consult a specialist. i tried looking it up in a medical dictionary to no avail. but you could try webmd.com they have a lot of info about all sorts of conditions. or try Google and enter : "high white blood count" or "abnormal cbc results" and things of that sort. gd lk hope this helps.

Answer 4

It means your body is fighting a infection.