Diagnosis and Treatment Management in Patients with Autoimmune Neutropenia

Autoimmune neutropenia (AIN) is the frequent cause of neutropenia in infants and children. AIN is associated with a reduced neutrophil count, which is due to aberrant cell-mediated or humoral immune response. In this review, we will discuss the available diagnostic approaches and management of the diseases. We collected data from PubMed, Google Scholar, Medline, Web of Science databases, using a group of key words, such as neutropenia, autoimmune, diagnosis and management from 2000 until 2019. The most important aspects of primary assessment in the affected children were family history and physical examinations. Diagnostic methods in this disease are granulocyte indirect agglutination test (GAT) and granulocyte immunofluorescence test (GIFT). However, the sensitivity and specificity of these tests are low. In these patients, injection of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), is the first line of treatment. Despite low prevalence, autoimmune neutropenia is a clinically significant disease and it is critical to identify it and pursue effective treatment in these patients