|
I read with interest the report by Kundu, et al., on diagnosis
of enteric fever in children (1). It has been stated that complete
blood count in enteric fever is unremarkable and the white blood cell
count is normal in most cases and leukocytosis makes the diagnosis
less probable. However, it has not been mentioned whether there is a
help of relative granulocytosis in the diagnosis of enteric fever or
not. Caglar, et al. had reported relative granulocytosis among
children with enteric fever(2). Even though relative granulocytosis in
children <2 years of age with enteric fever has already been mentioned
before(3), all of their patients were older than 3.5 years old, and
granulocytosis did not vary, whether the patients were older or
younger than 10 years, and leukopenia was present in only half of
patients. It was more marked in children who were sick for less than a
week. Therefore, in the presence of relative granulocytosis with
leukopenia in children with high fever of undetermined origin, enteric
fever should be considered.
M K Caglar,
F S Altuga,
Gaziosmanpasa University,
Faculty of Medicine,
Department of Pediatrics, Tokat, Turkey.
E-mail: [email protected]
1. Kundu R, Ganguly N, Ghosh T Kr, Yewale VN,
Shah RC, Shah NK. lAP Task Force Report: Diagnosis of enteric fever
in children 875. Indian Pediatr 2006; 43: 875-883.
2. Caglar MK, Ozsoylu S, Kama G. Relative
granulocytosis in childhood typhoid fever. J Pediatr 1983; 102:
603-604.
3. Krugman S, Katz SL. Salmonella infections, including typhoid
fever. In: Krugman S, Katz SL, eds. Infectious Diseases of
Children. 7th edn. St Louis: CV Mosby. 1981; p.332.
|
