Brief Answer: Anemia and active inflammation Detailed Answer: Dear XXXX Thanks for your query. The elevated white count with a predominance of neutrophils is suggestive of an acute inflammatory process, or an infection. It could be related to your inflammatory bowel disease or independent; if you have infectious symptoms such as fever, pain, respiratory complaints, digestive complaints, etc, you should consult your physician to determine about further workup such as cultures; the other abnormal test is the hemoglobin, you have anemia which is below the expected number for "physiologic" anemia of pregnancy; the cause cannot be determined just by the numbers provided, a ferritin and complete iron studies would be needed to better understand, but again, this could be anemia of chronic disease related to your Chron's; it is important, however to address the anemia as it may affect delivery of oxygen to the placenta, and anemia can worsen given that your nutrients go also to fetus. Hope this helps, wish you the best, Dr. Brenes-Salazar MD Mayo Clinic MN

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Brief Answer: Inflammation and XXXXXXX Detailed Answer: Thanks for the follow up; the CRP result may be less specific, as the values fluctuate from a day to day basis. There is indeed evidence of iron deficiency anemia, probably on top of a chronic element of anemia; you should talk to your OB to adjust your iron supplementation. The other possibility is if you have been recently exposed to steroids, which can elevate both white count and neutrophils without having an elevated CRP Yours, Dr Brenes-Salazar

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Brief Answer: There you go! Detailed Answer: Great, we have the answer for the elevated white count an neutrophils, the prednisone. The way this works mostly is that these cells attach to the walls of the blood vessels, and remain there like the Army Reserve, until they called to fight infection or inflammation. Prednisone and other steroids send a signal that "fakes" the call for action, and more cells enter the blood stream. So, nothing to worry about there It seems that you are taking plenty of iron, I would try to supplement it as much as possible with dietary sources: green vegetables like brocoli, particularly when had with citric beverages that promote vegetable iron absorbtion and of course, meat, poultry and eggs. Cheers

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