cyclic neutropenia

9.9

A rare blood disorder causing regular drops in neutrophils, a type of white blood cell

noun
/ˈsaɪklɪk ˌnjuːtrəˈpiːniə/

Specialized

: neutropenia cíclica

A diagnosis of cyclic neutropenia can typically be made after observing the periodic pattern of neutrophil levels.

Examples

Patients with cyclic neutropenia may experience regular intervals of increased susceptibility to infections.
Treatment for cyclic neutropenia often involves careful monitoring of blood counts.
Patients with cyclic neutropenia often experience frequent infections.
She was diagnosed with cyclic neutropenia last year.
A diagnosis of cyclic neutropenia can typically be made after observing the periodic pattern of neutrophil levels.
Patients with cyclic neutropenia may experience regular intervals of increased susceptibility to infections.
Treatment for cyclic neutropenia often involves careful monitoring of blood counts.

Surface Forms

cyclic neutropenia singular

cyclic neutropenias plural

Morphology

cyclic + neutropenia

The adjective 'cyclic' simply qualifies 'neutropenia' as occurring in regular, repeating cycles, so the overall meaning is a periodic form of neutropenia. This is a straightforward adjective + noun composition following normal English patterns (and similar constructions exist in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Cyclic neutropenia comes from two parts: cyclic meaning 'happening again and again' and neutropenia meaning 'low number of neutrophils', a kind of 'white blood cell'. Picture the blood cell count going down and up in regular waves, and so the name explains that these low counts return in set periods and cause times of more infections.