Physiological and Clinical Studies on Norms and Variations in Counts of Circulating Basophile Leucocytes

Abstract

Variations in the counts of circulating basophile leucocytes in 225 subjects were studied. The results obtained are as follows: 1) The counts (per mm3) show a gradual rise with growth, from infancy to adolescence, and maintain a fair constancy in adults. 2) No significant sex difference was found in the peripheral basophile counts. 3) A definite diurnal variation in the counts exists, which is lowest in the morning and highest in the evening. 4) The counts are altered in different phases of the menstrual cycle. 5) Pregnant women show lower counts than nonpregnant women. 6) Surgical trauma and a single electroconvulsive shock lowers the counts significantly but variations are not significant after meals and physical exercise. 7) Smokers have slightly higher counts than non-smokers. 8) A course of irradiation therapy lowers the counts significantly in patients with inoperable neoplastic diseases. 9) Counts show insignificant variation with alteration of blood glucose level. The results mentioned above are discussed.Of the various formed elements of blood being studied by researchers, basophile leucocytes have attracted comparatively little attention. This was partly due to lack of suitable counting methods and ignorance about their functions. A major problem in studying them is the relative paucity of these cells in blood and difficulty in staining. The peripheral counts based on direct examination of blood smears are unreliable because a large number of cells have to be counted in order to obtain an accurate estimation of the number of circulating basophile leucocytes. Moreover, basophils have a tendency to clump together which further complicates the reliability of the smear method. The introduction of the counting chamber method (MOORE and JAMES, 1953) made the counting of peripheral baso-