Clinical and pathophysiological characteristics and significance of newborn cytopenia (neutropenia, leukopenia and lymphopenia)

Abstract

Cytopenias are common laboratory findings in the neonatal period and have different reasons and characteristics. They occur as benign transitory conditions and also as potentially dangerous «masks» of immunodeficiency and infectious diseases.
Objective: to study frequency and causal factors of neutro-, lympho- and leukopenias in newborns and estimate their influence at quality of life and infectious morbidity rate.
Materials and methods. Medical records of 738 children, treated in newborn pathology department and intensive care department, were examined with absolute and relative count of neutrophils and lymphocytes. The thorough documental analysis of patients with cytopenias was provided and catamnesis of the follow-up infectious morbidity was took.
Results and conclusions. Neutropenia is a dominant type of cytopenias in infants (72.88%), it has benign transitory character in almost all cases and doesn't require any special correction; the most frequently type of comorbidity is combination of cytopenia and different infectious diseases (52.7%). The probably factors of newborn neutro- and lymphopenia development were established. There aren't correlation between follow-up infectious morbidity rate and cytopenia degree (r=0,016 for lymphopenias and r=0,0015 for neutropenias); the importance of clinical blood count (especially absolute neutrophils and lymphocytes count ) for early diagnosis of cytopenic conditions was also determined; the register of children with lymphopenia was created with a goal of further immunological examination and diagnosis of immunodeficiency disorders, especially severe combined immunodeficiency.