Monocyte

[jamilea]

What role does the monocyte have in Multiple Sclerosis?

What does it mean when monocyte levels are marked with an H for high for every lab test taken?

[Shashi]

Monocytes are white blood cells which aid in immunity. From what I found in this article (which you really need to have a doctorate degree to read), the migration of monocytes can play a role in MS lesion formation.

http://msj.sagepub.com/content/11/3/310.abstract

Whatever that means!

[jamilea]

Bah! I already read that one today.

Does it mean that elevated Monocyte levels could indicate an underlying condition like MS?

[smcb95]

Not necessarily. An increased monocyte level can also indicate mononucleosis. Be well.

[Redwings]

On lab tests, high monocytes indicate nonspecific inflammation. It does indicate AN underlying condition, but there's no way to know from the cell count alone what that condition might be. The most that can be said is that there's inflammation somewhere, and more tests are necessary to determine the cause.

While that underlying condition could be MS, it could also be several other things. Just because MS is on the list of possibilities, it's important not to presume that an elevated monocyte count indicates MS solely because symptoms are present that could be caused by MS.

Monocytes play a role in MS because MS involves inflammation. But there's no way to tell from cell counts alone whather that inflammation is due to MS or some other condition. Nonspecific tests can't be used in isolation to diagnose a specific condition.

In looking for a specific diagnosis of MS, these nonspecific tests don't really count. They're just signs that point to the need for more tests to differentiate one condition from another. The only things that count are the specific diagnostic criteria that can distinguish MS from other conditions.