High white blood cells, man 53yrs

[Sdanielle]

So my dad went to A&E due to swelling in his right foot/ankle,
His bloods came back to show he had high uric acid indicator for gout, however they had stated separate to this they can see his white cells show higher, from when he last had bloods done after a double hip replacement 2 years ago this year. The fact she said it was "unrelated to gout" now has my dad worrying. Is there anything else that would cause this? He's 53, and again double hip replacement 2 years ago, apart from that no other medical issues we are aware of. They have asked him to return in 3 weeks time for a retest??? Not sure if it was worryingly high it would be sooner than that or if this is standard?

They can be an indicator of all kinds of things like infection, injury or inflammation.

I was going to say sign of infection too

some sort of infection? does he have a cold? Or lots of covid about and he might not know he has got it

I was thinking this myself but not showing any signs only know he is on antibiotics he seems a bit run down.... x

Yes he went to a and e with swollen ankle. Turned out to he gout therefore prescribed antibiotics however they stated to him the high count is separate from the gout ( clearly inflammation) so has him slightly worried x