Changes in white blood cell counts after administration of cortisone acetate to healthy ambulatory individuals.

Abstract

Abstract Single doses of 50 mg. of cortisone acetate orally and intramuscularly in healthy ambulatory subjects were followed by different and distinct patterns of behavior of the neutrophil, lymphocyte, eosinophil, and total white blood cell counts of the peripheral blood. When compared with the fluctuations in cell counts after an intramuscular injection of the aqueous vehicle, in which cortisone acetate is suspended for intramuscular use, the oral administration of cortisone acetate resulted in an increase in the neutrophil count during the first seven and one-half hours after the drug was given. There were also significant decreases in the lymphocyte and eosinophil counts after cortisone acetate orally, but no relative change in the total white blood cell count. In contrast to these results, the intramuscular injection of cortisone acetate was followed by a significantly greater and more prolonged increase in the neutrophil count and a significant rise in the total white blood cell count, but no appreciable changes in the lymphocyte and eosinophil counts. In addition, the rise in the neutrophil and total white blood cell counts, after cortisone acetate was given intramuscularly, was roughly paralleled in time and magnitude by discomfort at the site of injection in all subjects.