Left shift (medicine)

[2] The standard definition of a left shift is an absolute band form count greater than 7700/microL.

[3] There are competing explanations for the origin of the phrase "left shift," including the left-most button arrangement of early cell sorting machines[4][5] and a 1920s publication by Josef Arneth, containing a graph in which immature neutrophils, with fewer segments, shifted the median left.

[6] In the latter view, the name reflects a curve's preponderance shifting to the left on a graph of hematopoietic cellular differentiations.

This systemic effect of inflammation is most often seen in the course of an active infection and during other severe illnesses such as hypoxia and shock.

Döhle bodies may also be present in the neutrophil's cytoplasm in the setting of sepsis or severe inflammatory responses.