Neutrophil Kinetics in Acute Bacterial Infection

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Abstract
Neutrophil kinetics in peripheral blood were studied with DF32P[diisopropyl fluorophosphate]-labeled cells in 8 patients during severe acute bacterial infection. The blood transit time of labeled neutrophils was short and the neutrophil turnover rate increased up to 10 times the normal during the early phases of infection. This early phase was followed by a period in which the specific neutrophil radioactivity in the blood remained constant for up to 50 h. In early convalescence neutrophil egress from the bone marrow to the blood is probably almost stopped. The demonstration of increased neutrophil turnover may obviate the prevailing theory of quantitatively unchanged but redistributed neutrophil kinetics during bacterial infection in man. The mechanism which apparently abruptly stops neutrophil egress from the bone marrow to the blood during early convalescence is unknown.