Neutrophil assays as modified for infants.

Infants and patients with neutropenia provide few neutrophils for study. Accordingly, assays measuring oxidative metabolism (chemiluminescence, glucose-1-C14 oxidation, nitroblue tetrazolium dye reduction and superoxide anion generation) were studied to determine the range of neutrophil concentrations over which results were directly related to the number of neutrophils per reaction, and to define the limits (particularly, the lower one) of cell numbers studied that would yield accurate and comparative data. The chemiluminescence assay was then performed employing low neutrophil concentrations to document that the modified technique could detect a metabolic defect in neutrophils from infants when compared to cells obtained from their mothers and controls.