Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2018 Feb 11:2018:7341835.
doi: 10.1155/2018/7341835. eCollection 2018.

A Case of Levamisole-Induced Agranulocytosis

Affiliations
Case Reports

A Case of Levamisole-Induced Agranulocytosis

Thamer Kassim et al. Case Rep Hematol. .

Abstract

A sixty-eight-year-old male with a past medical history of recurrent cocaine use presented to the emergency department with recurrent diarrhea and was found to have a white blood cell (WBC) count of 1.9 × 109/L with agranulocytosis (absolute neutrophil count (ANC) of 95 cell/mm3). At admission, the patient disclosed that he used cocaine earlier during the day, and a urine drug screen tested positive for this. On hospital day one, the patient was found to have a fever with a maximum temperature of 313.6 K. After ruling out other causes and noting the quick turnaround of his neutropenia after four days of cocaine abstinence, the patient's neutropenia was attributed to levamisole-adulterated cocaine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Unremarkable neutrophils in the background of anemia. Absolute leukopenia with absolute neutropenia. Black arrows show a decreased number morphologically.
Figure 2
Figure 2

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Buchanan J. A., Lavonas E. J. Agranulocytosis and other consequences due to use of illicit cocaine contaminated with levamisole. Current Opinion in Hematology. 2012;19(1):27–31. doi: 10.1097/moh.0b013e32834da9ef. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bertol E., Mari F., Milia M. G., Politi L., Furlanetto S., Karch S. B. Determination of aminorex in human urine samples by GC-MS after use of levamisole. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis. 2011;55(5):1186–1189. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2011.03.039. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Drugabuse.gov. Nationwide trends. 2017. , https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends.
    1. Andersohn F., Konzen C., Garbe E. Systematic review: agranulocytosis induced by nonchemotherapy drugs. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2007;146(9):657–65. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-146-9-200705010-00009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dherange P. A., Beatty N., Al-Khashman A. Levamisole-adulterated cocaine: a case of retiform purpura, cutaneous necrosis and neutropenia. BMJ Case Reports. 2015;2015:p. bcr2015211768. doi: 10.1136/bcr-2015-211768. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources