I am a 28 yr old female with SLE. I m actually concerned because of my latest cbc. My whites were elevated at 11.5, and my absolute lymphocyte count was 5410. This seems pretty significantly high especially considering I haven t been sick with any cold/flu/virus. Also, at the time of the cbc, I had been on my 3rd week of prednisone. Its my understanding that both lupus and prednisone by nature tend to lower the lymphocyte count...not raise it? Should I be concerned? All other lab values were in normal range. I also have a history of multiple false-positives for the htlv virus when I used to donate platelets. I was told later that it was probably my lupus that caused the false positives on those. Just hoping there s not a connection.