absolute_lymphocyte_count: Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC)

In cliot: Clinical Indices and Outcomes Tools

Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC)

Description

Calculates the Absolute Lymphocyte Count (ALC) based on the total White Blood Cell (WBC) count and the percentage of lymphocytes from a differential blood count. ALC is a useful marker for immune function and is used in the monitoring of HIV/AIDS, post-transplant patients, and chemotherapy (e.g., assessing susceptibility to opportunistic infections).

Usage

absolute_lymphocyte_count(wbc, lymphs_percent)

Arguments

wbc	Numeric. The total White Blood Cell count. Can be entered as cells/microL (e.g., 5000) or k/microL (e.g., 5.0). The output unit will match the input magnitude.
lymphs_percent	Numeric. The percentage of lymphocytes reported in the WBC differential (0-100).

Value

A list containing:

ALC	The calculated Absolute Lymphocyte Count in the same unit scale as the WBC input.
Interpretation	General classification (Lymphopenia < 1000 cells/microL, Lymphocytosis > 4000 cells/microL). The function attempts to detect if inputs were in k/microL for interpretation purposes.

References

Al-Gwaiz LA, Babay HH. The diagnostic value of absolute lymphocyte count in typhoid fever. J Infect Dev Ctries. 2007;1(3):260-265.

Examples

# Example 1: Normal
# WBC 6000 cells/uL, 30% Lymphs
absolute_lymphocyte_count(6000, 30)

# Example 2: Lymphopenia (using k/uL input)
# WBC 3.5 k/uL, 15% Lymphs
# Result will be 0.525 k/uL (which is 525 cells/uL -> Lymphopenia)
absolute_lymphocyte_count(3.5, 15)

cliot documentation built on Dec. 1, 2025, 1:06 a.m.