Leukergy in inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract

In the phenomenon of leukergy, white blood cells agglomerate in peripheral blood slides. This agglomeration has been described in inflammatory infections of various causes. This study assesses this phenomenon in inflammatory bowel disease. A correlation was found between the severity of inflammatory bowel disease activity and the percentage of leukergy. Leukergy was found to parallel the clinical and endoscopic findings of inflammatory bowel disease. Furthermore, leukergy was found to be more accurate than white blood count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. It is also found to accurately assess the course of the disease when clinical and other laboratory tests were masked by steroid and antibiotic administrations. Leukergy is a quick, inexpensive test that can easily be performed at the patient's bedside.

Reduced Leukocyte Adhesiveness in Response to Viral versus Nonviral Infection/Inflammation

“…The observation that bacterial infections increase leukocyte adhesiveness is not new [4,5,11]; increased adhesiveness/aggregation is nonspecific and can be observed in other inflammatory conditions, including arthritis [12], inflammatory bowel diseases [13], trauma [14], myocardial infarction [15], stroke [16] and atherosclerosis [17]. However, viral infections differ from bacterial and noninfectious inflammatory conditions by the absence of increased leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation both in peripheral blood [9] and in CSF [18].…”

Capillary and Venous Leukocyte Adhesiveness/Aggregation to Differentiate between Viral and Bacterial Infection

“…The LAAT has been previously shown to be a reliable indicator of the existence and severity of the inflammatory reaction accompanying infectious disease [13,15,16,26], sepsis [12], rheumatic disease [2,4], ischemic heart disease [9,17], cerebrovascular disease [7,8,10,27], inflammatory bowel disease [5,6,18], burns [28] and stress [29][30][31][32]. We presently focused on the possibility to identify the WBC and their state of adhesiveness/aggregation in both venous and capillary blood by using an image analysis system.…”

“…Inflammation confers increased adhesive properties upon white blood cells (WBC) [1].We [2][3][4][5][6] and others [7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have used a simple slide test to reveal the increased state of leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation (LAA) in the peripheral blood of individuals during various conditions of infection /inflammation.The leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation test (LAAT) was shown to be a useful laboratory test to detect the presence [14,15] and severity [4,5,[16][17][18] of an inflammatory response. We have recently introduced the novel technology of image analysis to detect the presence of WBC in the peripheral blood slides as well as for the quantitation of their degree of adhesiveness/aggregation [19][20][21][22].…”

Association of leukergy (in vitro leukocyte aggregation) with systemic inflammation in dogs and cats (2017–2022)

“…Since then, a review of the published literature shows that a finding of leukergy has been used to characterize “infectious disease, circulatory and coronary diseases, inflammatory diseases, smoking‐related disorders, immunologic disorders, occupational medicine, monitoring of neuroleptic drug use, and ophthalmology” 4 . For several of these diseases, it has been shown to outperform more standard measures of inflammation, such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and WBC count 6–11 …”

“…4 For several of these diseases, it has been shown to outperform more standard measures of inflammation, such as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and WBC count. [6][7][8][9][10][11] The assessment of leukergy was historically achieved using the leukocyte adhesiveness/aggregation test (LAAT), which is performed by dropping blood anticoagulated with sodium citrate onto a slide that is held at a 45-degree angle, creating a thin film that is dried, stained, and assessed. A total of 300 leukocytes are then counted, and the percentage of aggregated leukocytes on the slides is noted.…”