White Blood Cell Disorders

White blood cell disorders are those diseases affecting the cells in blood that fight infection. White blood cells are one of three blood cells produced by bone marrow. Disorders involving white blood cells include leukemia, a cancer of the blood, and neutropenia, a rare disorder that causes children to have lower than normal levels of neutrophilis, a type of white blood cell.

Neutropenia causes low levels of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that destroys bacteria in the blood and helps protect your child from infections. Neutropenia can be a very serious condition because without enough neutrophils, your child is susceptible to bacterial infections that can become life threatening.

Among children, neutropenia has a number of causes, including:

• Inadequate bone marrow production due to other blood disorders such as aplastic anemia or cancer such as leukemia.

• Response to radiation therapy or chemotherapy, which destroys white cells. When this occurs, it could delay radiation or chemotherapy.

• Inadequate white cells because of an autoimmune disease.

• Bacterial infections, such as tuberculosis or viral infections, such as mononucleosis.

• Other rare hereditary diseases that cause decreases in white blood cells such as Fanconi anemia, which leads to bone marrow failure, or Shwachman-Diamond syndrome, which involves the pancreas, bone marrow and skeleton.

Children with neutropenia tend to develop infections easily because their white blood cell count is too low to ward off bacteria. Most infections occur in the lungs, mouth, throat, sinuses and skin. Some patients experience painful mouth ulcers, gum infections, ear infections, periodontal disease or disease of the tissues surrounding the teeth and infections of the urinary tract, colon, rectum or reproductive tract.

Read more about neutropenia:

• Signs and symptoms
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Special services

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated March 25, 2008