Lowers white blood count?

[MsGymRat]

I didn't realize that Betaseron lowers your white blood count. A nurse called today to tell me that my labs were OK but my white blood count was a little low. She said the doctor wasn't worried but will keep an eye on it. She said it's due to the Betaseron.
I have a sore throat I caught from my kids so I'm trying to take it easy.

[phxjcc]

Yes, WBC count will be reduced. Betaseron is synthetic Interferon. I won't get all geeky w.r.t. immunology--but the purpose of Beta is to reduce the WBC's crossing the blood-brain barrier since it is the WBC's that are attacking the myelin sheath around the nerves.

wiki article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferon

[MrsChip]

I had same on Avonex

Hi,

As long as they are testing your bloods regularly, a slightly low WCC is OK. Monthly testing is what my MS Nurse did for me. Mine finally bombed to 2.8 and I has laryngitis for months and many infections so was taken off it.

We tried again after I had an allergic reaction to Tysabri, but the same happened.

A lowered WCC is OK but it depends HOW low it gets.

Make sure they a re monitoring you carefully, and hopefully it won't get too low.