The state of leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation in the peripheral blood of patients with respiratory tract infections

• Published in: Respiration Vol. 57; no. 2; p. 109
• Main Authors: Fadilah, R, Berliner, S, Kidron, D, Ben-Bassat, M, Frumkin, R, Jaffe, A, Pinkhas, J, Aronson, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 1990
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Blood Sedimentation; Cell Adhesion; Cell Aggregation; Cell Count; Female; Humans; Leukocytes - physiology; Male; Middle Aged; Rabbits; Respiratory Tract Infections - blood
• ISSN: 0025-7931
• DOI: 10.1159/000195830

The state of leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation (LAA) in the peripheral blood has been employed as a marker of inflammation. In the present study we examined patients with varying intensities of inflammation caused by respiratory tract infections to further investigate the reliability of the state of LAA for the detection and assessment of the severity of disease activity. The study includes 140 controls, 46 patients with upper respiratory tract infection, 30 with bronchitis, 27 with suspicion of pulmonary infiltrate, and 39 with small and 18 with large pulmonary infiltrate. Assessment was based on assuming an increasing severity of inflammation from the 1st to the 6th diagnostic category and by making use of discriminant analysis. It was found that the state of LAA proved to be the best variable to classify the patients into their diagnostic category (F to enter 27), followed by erythrocyte sedimentation rate at the 1st h (F to enter 20.8) and total white blood cell count (F to enter 8.3). These studies were followed by animal experimentation. A highly significant correlation (p = 0.005) was found between the state of LAA in the peripheral blood and the degree of pulmonary leukostasis in a model of endotoxemia in rabbits. These results suggest that the state of LAA is not an epiphenomenon and represents the tendency of the white blood cells to stick to the endothelium which facilitates their migration into the tissues.