What Blood Counts Can TellBy ERIC NAGOURNEY

Published: March 15, 2005

 A simple look at white blood cell counts in women ages 50 to 79 may help doctors tell if the women are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease, even if they have no symptoms, researchers said yesterday.

Writing in Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers said that in postmenopausal women, an elevated white blood cell count, a sign of inflammation, appeared to be linked with greater incidence of coronary heart disease death and heart attacks.

The study was led by Dr. Karen L. Margolis of the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

The study is based on a review of more than 72,000 women around the country over a six-year period. The researchers correlated the women's white blood cell counts, taken at the beginning of the study, with the incidence in later years of cardiovascular disease.

The study found that women with the highest counts had twice the risk of dying from heart disease as women with the lowest counts did. They also had a 40 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 46 percent higher risk for stroke.

There is a growing body of evidence, the researchers noted, that chronic inflammation may play a role in the thickening and hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis.

What is not clear, the study said, is whether the higher white blood cell counts contribute to the problem or just signal it.