Eosinophil Count in High Altitude Natives of Nepal

Abstract

Normally eosinophil constitutes 1-7% with it's absolute count < 700 cells /dl of blood but while studying the Differential Leukocyte Count (DLC) of the medical students it is found that the percentage of eosinophils in DLC is much higher among a significant number of Nepalese students of hill region though they have no complains of any diseases. The present study is therefore undertaken to study whether the eosinophil count of normal high altitude natives is significantly higher than the normal low landers or not. Keeping this in view the MBBS students of Nepali and Indian origin are randomly selected and the Differential Leukocyte (Eosinophil) Count (DEC) and Absolute Eosinophil Count (AEC) are done by the standard hematological techniques along with the ESR value of individual subjects. It was found that the normal range of DEC is significantly high in Nepali students of high altitude natives along with the AEC than that of low landers . Therefore it can be opined that the normal range of eosinophil count among the high altitude natives may be higher than the standard reference value which might be physiological as suggested by their normal ESR values.