RESUMEN
Peripheral blood tests are performed for the differentiation of febrile diseases, and are useful for diagnosing and determining the effectiveness of treatment in bacterial infections. However, their use for viral infections has not been well-investigated, nor do any clear views exist regarding their use with viral infections. We retrospectively investigated the results of routine peripheral blood tests for febrile diseases (differential leukocyte count and C-reactive protein (CRP)) performed in 1162 patients between the 2004/05 and 2009/10 influenza seasons, and identified the characteristic findings of influenza, along with the differences between cases of seasonal influenza A (including H3N2 and H1N1; hereafter, seasonal A; n = 614) and pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 seen during the 2009/10 influenza season (hereafter, A/H1N1/pdm09; n=548). The differential leukocyte count varies with age; therefore, analysis was performed by adjusting for the age of all patients using a generalized additive model (GAM). Increased granulocytes and decreased lymphocytes were confirmed during the initial stage of influenza infection, followed by inversion to decreased granulocytes and increased lymphocytes. The granulocyte count was significantly lower in A/H1N1/pdm09 compared to seasonal A, with levels 0.93- and 0.82-fold relative to seasonal A before and after treatment, respectively. The lymphocyte count was 1.12- to 1.30-fold greater in A/H1N1/pdm09 compared to seasonal A both before and after treatment, indicating significantly higher levels in A/H1N1/pdm09. CRP levels peaked 24-36 h after onset, with peaks of 0.88mg/dL for A/H1N1/pdm09 and 1.53 mg/dL for seasonal A. Peripheral blood counts change due to factors such as the time course of the disease, onset of complications, modification resulting from treatment, and side effects of pharmacotherapies. We report the present findings because we consider an understanding of the changes and kinetics of differential leukocyte counts in peripheral blood inherent to influenza to be important for diagnosis (particularly for the decision of doing rapid diagnosis test) and to promote recognition of the onset of complications and side effects during the course.
