Just curious, I couldn't find any information on this subject in previous posts. I recently had absolute neutrophil bands show up in my CBC (0.4 K/uL) and I was curious what this means. My previous tests did not show this except for when I was first diagnosed. Is this something to be concerned about? I am still waiting for PCR results. Also, maybe of interest/relevance, my CBC showed my lowest ANC of 0.6. I'm a little worried about that.
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Absolute Neutrophil Bands
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ANC of 0.6 is a little low, indeed. Have you been ill at all recently? Your neutrophil count can be affected by a recent virus, for example.
Neutrophil bands are, to my knowledge, neutrophils that are almost but not quite fully mature.
Wikipedia explains
“Band neutrophils are an intermediary step prior to the complete maturation of segmented neutrophils. An increase in band neutrophils typically means that the bone marrow has been signaled to release more WBCs and increase production of WBCs, also known as a "left shift". Most often this is due to infection or inflammation in the body.”
I wonder if you have had a recent virus (maybe even gone unnoticed) could be the common cause to both your low count and the presence of band cells?
Our page on blood cell counts explains bands in a little bit more detail: https://cmlsupport.org.uk/section/normal-blood-counts (see the neutrophils section).
David.
Hi David,
Thank you for the information. I am getting over a flu from about 3-4 weeks ago which turned into a sinus infection. So maybe that explains the low ANC? I just thought there would be a higher ANC following a sickness, as my body would want to produce more neutrophils to fight the sickness? I also got my flu shot a couple weeks ago. Not sure if that affects results as well? Regardless, my oncologist hasn't contacted me about the results so I am going about my typical routine with maybe a little extra hand sanitizer thrown into the mix.
Ian
Flu shot can definitely cause a drop in white cell counts in general, and of course that includes neutrophils. There’s a fair bit of research on Medline about neutropenia and vaccinations that you can find.
My layman logic would agree with you that you’d expect an increase in those cells after an infection - sounds reasonable, right? But it’s not the case, I only really know because I’ve had this chat with my doctor in the past when I’ve had a low WBC count and she obviously knows her stuff.
Extra hand sanitiser is always a good idea. Especially at this time of year in the northern hemisphere.
David.