Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition 2006;91:F357-F358
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Cerebrospinal fluid leucocyte counts in healthy neonates
1 Department of Neonatology, Sant Joan de Déu University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain
2 Department of Paediatrics, La Paz Children’s Hospital, Madrid, Spain
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr Martín-Ancel
Department of Neonatology, Sant Joan de Déu University Hospital, Passeig Sant Joan de Déu 2, Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona 08950, Spain; amartina{at}hsjdbcn.org
Objectives: To determine the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) white blood cell (WBC) count of normal term neonates, and compare the CSF WBC profile of normal and symptomatic infants without infection of the central nervous system (CNS).
Method: Neonates were included if (a) they were at risk of congenital Toxoplasma infection and had undergone a lumbar puncture to assess CNS involvement, and (b) serial specific serum IgG and IgM determinations had ruled out congenital infection. According to neonatal chart reviews, 30 consecutive patients without CNS infection were classified as normal (absolutely asymptomatic) or symptomatic (any kind of symptoms).
Results: CSF WBC count was higher in 11 symptomatic (7/mm3, 0–30/mm3) than in 19 normal (1/mm3, 0–5/mm3) neonates (p<0.01).
Conclusion: Normal neonatal CSF contains up to 5 WBCs/mm3. Mild pleocytosis can be found in symptomatic infants without CNS infection.
Abbreviations: CNS, central nervous system; CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; WBC, white blood cell
Keywords: cerebrospinal fluid; leucocytes; reference values; infection
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
-
All Versions of this Article:
adc.2005.082826v1
91/5/F357 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Immunology (including allergy)
-
Travel medicine
-
Tropical medicine (infectious diseases)
- Infection (neurology)
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
