Granulocytosis - Definition

In medicine, granulocytosis is the presence in peripheral blood of an increased number of granulocytes, a category of white blood cells. Often, the word refers to an increased neutrophil granulocyte count, as neutrophils are the main granulocytes.

Granulocytosis can be a feature of a number of diseases:

• Infection, especially bacterial
• Malignancy, most notably leukemia (it is the main feature of chronic myelogenous leukemia, CML)
• Autoimmune disease

In cardiovascular disease, increased white blood cell counts have been shown to indicate a worse prognosis.