[Clinical importance of granulocyte-specific antibodies]

Clinical and laboratory data of 184 patients with immune neutropenia were evaluated. They suffered from autoimmune neutropenia (n = 165), alloimmune neonatal neutropenia (n = 18) and from transfusion-associated lung injury (n = 1). Autoimmune neutropenia was predominantly found in patients below 3 years. Patients were usually affected by benign bacterial infections. The peripheral blood count showed normal or diminished leukocyte counts with median absolute neutrophil counts of 285 cells/microliters. Bone marrow examination revealed in 60% of the cases a hypercellular marrow with a shift to the left. In 36% the bone marrow was normal and in 4% a hypocellular marrow was found. Spontaneous remission occurred in all newborns and, so far, in 4 patients with autoimmune neutropenia. Symptomatic treatment of the infections was sufficient in most of the patients.