1978 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 31-38
A 63-year-old woman with chronic idiopathic neutropenia had repeated febrile episodes but her clinical course had been benign. The in vitro soft agar culture of bone marrow cells revealed normal to slightly increased incidence of neutrophilic colony forming cells (CFC) and a slight increase in absolute numbers of neutrophilic CFC. The levels of colony stimulating factor in serum were increased, and colony inhibiting activity in serum and marrow plasma was within normal limits. The liquid culture of bone marrow cells showed normal proliferation and maturation of neutrophil series. These findings, in addition to normal levels of serum muramidase and vitamin B12 binding capacity, suggested that neutropenia in this patient was due to increased destruction rather than decreased production of neutrophils. Although classical tests for the detection of antineutrophil antibodies were all negative, partial response to corticosteroid therapy suggested that our case might belong to the group of immuneneutropenias.
