Circulating Leukocytes

Abstract

Objective: Evaluating circulating leukocytes in acute mental stress & relation with coronary artery disease. Design: Descriptive study Setting: Muhammad Medical College Mirpurkhas, Duration: from March 2007 to August 2007. Methods: Two hundred young healthy adults were studied for stress experiment. Venous blood samples were drawn before and after stress for estimation of leukocyte counts. Values were presented as mean ±standard error of mean (SEM). Results: The difference in Pre and during stress results of variables were TLC = - 4630.85 ± 140.65, N % = -11.8 ± 0.36, L% = 4.03 ± 0.14, M %= 5.48 ± 0.37, E % = 1.18 ± 0.07, B % = 1.11 ± 0.022. Highly significant p-values (≤ 0.001) were found among various parameters, in both groups of subjects. Conclusion: An increase in the number of circulating leukocytes was an important unexpected observation that was noted. We suggest that the real life stress induced leukocytes changes may warrant further investigation about its relation with the coronary artery disease (CAD).