[In vitro glucose consumption in severe hyperleukocytosis. A cause of factitious hypoglycemia]

Following the observation, in a patient with leukemia, of a factitious hypoglycemia that was related to in vitro glucose consumption by leukocytes, a study of glucose fall in vitro in the blood of 17 patients with leukemia of various types and with various grades of leukocytosis was undertaken. Results show that in vitro glucose consumption is linked to the intensity of leukocytes concentration, and is independent of the type of leukocyte. Factitious hypoglycemia may thus frequently occur in patients with high blood leukocyte count. This phenomenon, that was previously described, is again of interest to day because many laboratories do not yet use any more glycolysis inhibitors that partially inhibit it. Indeed, these inhibitors interfere with measures of other biological parameters that are simultaneously determined in autoanalysers.