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1: Rev Med Interne. 2003 Jul;24(7):431-5.Click here to read Links
Comment in:
Rev Med Interne. 2006 Jan;27(1):70-2.

[Value of eosinopenia in inflammatory disorders: an "old" marker revisited]

[Article in French]

Gil H, Magy N, Mauny F, Dupond JL.

Service de médecine interne, praticien hospitalier, centre hospitalier universitaire Jean-Minjoz, 25000, Besançon, France. hgil@chu-besancon.fr <hgil@chu-besancon.fr>

PURPOSE: The value of eosinopenia as a test in favour of an infectious disease was suggested by Schilling since 1929. We tried to verify this hypothesis with a prospective and multicentric study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One thousand and thirty-eight patients were included (82 females and 56 males, means age: 71.8 years). Diagnoses were: 83 infectious diseases, 38 systemic diseases, 10 neoplasia and 7 miscellaneous. RESULTS: The mean value of eosinophils was 72/mm3 in bacterial infectious diseases and 214/mm3 in non infectious diseases (p < 0.01). When leukocytes were higher than 10,000/mm3 and eosinophils counts less than 40/mm3, predictive value for an infectious bacterial disease was 100% as well as specificity. Under same conditions, when protein C reactive was higher than 100mg x l(-1), the predictive value was 85% and the specificity was 57%. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that an inflammatory syndrome associated with hyperleucocytosis above 10,000/mm3 and eosinophils counts under 40/mm3 seems strongly related to bacterial infectious diseases.

PMID: 12829215 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]