Monocytes are elevated during pregnancy: causes, rules for testing, consequences and prevention

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-17 18:33

When carrying a child, women are forced to constantly undergo a blood test, which helps to timely identify the presence of he alth problems and promptly eliminate them. It is especially important to take control of the situation in which monocytes are elevated in the blood. During pregnancy, making such a diagnosis after an examination raises a large number of questions in women - what kind of cells are they, what does their excessive number indicate, and what can this lead to? In most cases, a sharp rise in the level of monocytes for a long time indicates that serious malfunctions are occurring in the human body that need to be addressed.

Monocytes and their norm in the body

Monocytes are a type of white blood cells that play the role of defenders in the body, preventing the penetration and spread of pathogenic microorganisms through it. An increased level of these large cells in the blood is also called monocytosis. It, in turn, is divided into two types - relative and absolute.

With relative monocytosis, the number of such cells in the body is at a normal level, although when calculated by the leukocyte formula, their number increases. In simple terms, these indicators remain in the original amount, while the level of other types of leukocytes decreases markedly.

This condition is detected when there are 10 percent more monocytes in the total number of immune blood cells than the standard ones, which happens during neutropenia and lymphocytopenia. Pathology of the absolute type is set when the number of this component becomes more than 0.7109 liters.

It is important to remember that the relative form of monocytosis does not carry any information during diagnostic measures, while the absolute stage indicates the presence of serious diseases and pathological inflammatory processes occurring in the body.

When do monocytes rise?

Elevated monocytes in the blood during pregnancy are observed in the following cases:

• in the initial stages of acute infections, due to the penetration of viruses;
• tuberculosis of the lung cavity;
• pathologies caused by bacteriological infection;
• development of syphilis;
• malaria;
• malignant neoplasms in the body.

Besides this, monocytosis is quite commonbecomes a symptom of an advanced form of the inflammatory process and even Crohn's disease. In a woman's body, the number of such components often increases as a result of a recent surgical intervention associated with gynecological diseases.

It is important to remember that an elevated monocyte count is most often the first sign of an early stage of malignancy. Such a pathology needs timely diagnosis and complex treatment, especially during childbearing.

Functions of monocytes in the body

As already noted, this type of leukocyte cells is involved in protecting the human body from the negative effects of foreign bodies. In their appearance, monocytes are white structures that capture and destroy foreign agents.

Most often, it is immature cells that act as phagocytes (structures that are capable of destroying foreign agents). When pathogens enter the human body, monocytes repulse them by inactivating them. As a result of this process, all pathogenic microbes that have entered the human body, as well as protein fractions, die.

In addition, monocytes perform the following functions:

• remove dead white blood cells from the body;
• contribute to the accelerated production of interferons;
• actively participate in the formation of blood clots;
• have an antitumor effect.

Based on this, we can confidently say that monocytes- this is a serious obstacle to the further passage of the infectious process through the body.

Discomfort symptoms

If lymphocytes (including monocytes) are elevated throughout pregnancy, then the woman has the following symptoms:

• severe fatigue;
• feeling weak, malaise, deterioration;
• chronic fatigue;
• increase in body temperature to 37-37.5 degrees Celsius, while it persists for a long time.

Most often, you can understand that monocytosis is present in the body not by personal feelings, but by blood tests in the laboratory. However, experts have identified the symptoms described above in the main group, which most often speak of he alth problems. If a pregnant woman suddenly develops these symptoms, it is important for her to immediately seek medical help.

Elevated monocytes during pregnancy

Monocytes are increased - there are many reasons for this condition. Many experts describe the period of bearing a child as an immunodeficiency state. However, at the same time, many chronic inflammatory processes weaken or disappear completely over time. The main reason for the increase in monocytes during pregnancy is that they become the main protective cells at this time, and not lymphocytes, which occurs due to an increase in white blood structures.

During this period, they can release a huge amount of cytokines into the blood (usefulcomponents with anti-inflammatory effect). Also, during this period of time, the number of granulocytes in the woman's blood also increases significantly.

It is for this reason that in the first trimester after conception, monocytosis in a future mother is considered normal and indicates a good adaptation of the immune system to a new state. This leads to an improvement in protective functions, which begins to effectively resist various bacteria and pathogens, preventing various diseases. However, this does not apply to diseases.

When a pregnant woman is diagnosed with monocytosis, she should undergo a blood test for the presence of viral inflammatory processes. Especially when it comes to herpes type 4, which is very harmful to he alth. It is also important to pay attention to the symptoms of mononucleosis due to exposure to such viruses.

Other reasons

Another fairly common reason for the violation of the number of monocytes, as many experts say, is the presence in the body of a woman in the position of parasites. It is important to take blood tests in a timely manner to identify them:

• if the level of monocytes has deviated slightly from the norm, then the attending specialist can independently reduce the impact of pathogenic bacteria on the body;
• with strong deviations from the normal state, it is important for a woman to undergo complex treatment that will help normalize her previous indicators.

It is important to remember that monocytosis is not a disease. It signals that in the human body for this period of time some kind ofailment that requires mandatory treatment. It is important to eliminate the cause of monocytosis as soon as possible in order to get rid of the pathological process in a short time.

Treatment measures

It will not work to treat monocytosis during pregnancy without eliminating the main cause of its appearance, since there are no popular recipes and medicines to reduce the number of these structural units. In order to normalize their level in the patient's blood, it is imperative to carry out in-depth diagnostics and identify the focus of the spread of infection and inflammation.

Only after a diagnosis can be made, an effective treatment plan can be drawn up:

• with an increase in the number of protective cells as a result of infection, the doctor prescribes antibacterial medicines;
• with monocytosis due to an inflammatory process, the doctor prescribes appropriate medications for women;
• complex therapy is prescribed for systemic diseases caused by this cause.

In order for the diagnosis of monocytosis to be as detailed as possible, it is important to take a blood test on an empty stomach.

Prevention measures

If the attending specialist has found that monocytes in an adult are elevated during pregnancy, then he prescribes an additional study that helps determine the exact cause of the disease.

It is important for a future mother to take care of her he alth. Obviously, it is not alwayspathology is a condition when monocytes are elevated during pregnancy. Prevention of diseases that provoke undesirable violations in the level of protective structural units is as follows:

• need to stop playing sports, avoid stressful situations, emotional upheaval, feeling unwell;
• use only those medicines that have been prescribed by the treating specialist and in the prescribed dosage;
• go less often to crowded places during an exacerbation of viral diseases;
• go outside more often;
• rest more, sleep well;
• stop eating food with nutritional supplements and surrogates, replacing it with natural products containing vitamins and nutrients.

Standards for a child and an adult

Normally, the blood should contain from 3 to 11 percent of monocytes (in a child, the number of such cells varies from 2 to 12 percent) of the total number of leukocyte elements in the biological.

Most often, experts identify the relative amount of such elements (for this, they carry out a general blood test). But if serious problems with the work of the bone marrow are suspected, an analysis is carried out for the absolute content of monocytes, the poor results of which should alert every person.

Women (especially during childbearing) always have much more leukocytes in their blood than men, in addition, this value may vary depending on age (a child may have more).

Why know the level of monocytes?

When monocytes are elevated during pregnancy, the rules for testing are as follows:

• protect yourself from physical and emotional stress for 12 hours;
• do not eat sweet, fatty, fried and s alty foods, do not drink coffee and energy drinks;
• do not eat for four hours before testing.

Monocytes are important components of the leukocyte formula that help the specialist determine the exact state of he alth of the patient. The rise and fall of these structural units, which occur in children and adults, indicate that there are disorders in the body. It is important to pay special attention to the importance of monocytes in pregnant women, because at this time their immunity directs the main forces to maintain the he alth of the fetus.

The importance of monocytes

Doctors define monocytes as “wipers of the body”, as they cleanse the blood of pathogens and parasites, absorb dead cells and restore the functions of the circulatory system. Sometimes the increase and decrease in the level of protective cells occurs due to stress, overstrain, physical exertion, and the illiterate use of medications. When monocytes are elevated during pregnancy, the consequences are not as dangerous for the woman as for the development of the unborn child.