All issues > Volume 10(4); 1967

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1967;10(4):195-204. Published online April 30, 1967.

Frequency of Drumsticks in Neutrophils of Infants and Older Children

Hyung Ro Moon¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University

Abstract

The occurence of the drumsticks in neutrophils was studied in ninety females including fourty newborn infants, thirty older children and twenty young women； the latter serving as a control group. Thirty-six boys including thirty-one newborn infants of comparable ages to those of the opposite sex were also subjected for the same purpose. The follwing results are obtained: 1.The incidence of drumsticks and mean lobe count in normal newborn girls is 6.2 (S.D.+2.7) % and 3.18 (S.D.+0.32), respectively. 2.The incidence of drumsticks and mean lobe count in older girls is 1. 6 (S.D.+l, 0) % and 2.73 (S. D. 土 0.33), respectively. 3.The frequency of drumsticks and mean lobe count in young women is 1.4 (S.D. 土0.9)% and 2,78 (S. D. 土0.26), respectively. 4.None of the newborn boys and older boys bear drumstick in their neutrophils. 5.The neutrophil leukocytes bearing drumstick were so distributed that at least one such cell is encountered in 400 neutrophils in all females; however, in newborn girls 100 cells are needed to be counted before one drumstick is encountered. 6.Neutrophil leukocytes with four-lobed nucleus has the highest occurrence of drumsticks; 4. 94 per 100 such cells. 7.There appears to be a close correlation between the incidence of drumsticks and aging as well as lobing of the nucleus of neutrophil leukocytes. 8.Basophils bearing the drumstick are not identified in a series of 153 cells. From the results cited in above, it can be concluded that the examination of drumsticks in peripheral neutrophils is not only relatively simpler but also more reliable than the examination of sex chromatin in buccal smears for nuclear sexing especially during the first three days of life, and that the former method should be applied in detection of sex chromosomal pattern of ambiguious sex

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