Leukocyte in cerebrospinal fluid [Neurosurgery Wiki]

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====== Leukocyte in cerebrospinal fluid ======
Leukocyte in [[cerebrospinal fluid]].

The number of [[white blood cell]]s in CSF is very low, usually necessitating a manual WBC count. An increase in WBCs may occur in many conditions including infection (viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic), allergy, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, hemorrhage, [[traumatic tap]], encephalitis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. The WBC differential helps to distinguish many of these causes. For example, viral infection is usually associated with an increase in lymphocytes, while bacterial and fungal infections are associated with an increase in polymorphonuclear leukocytes ([[neutrophil]]s). The differential may also reveal [[eosinophil]]s associated with allergy and ventricular shunts; [[macrophage]]s with ingested bacteria (indicating meningitis), RBCs (indicating hemorrhage), or lipids (indicating possible cerebral infarction); blasts (immature cells) that indicate leukemia; and malignant cells characteristic of the tissue of origin. About 50% of metastatic cancers that infiltrate the central nervous system and about 10% of central nervous system tumors will shed cells into the CSF.