The Use of a Commercially Available Complement-Fixing Antigen for the Diagnosis of Elementary Body Types of Viral Infection

[摘要] 1. 1. Complement-fixation tests with an egg-yolk-grown lymphopathia venereum antigen (“Lygranum CF”-Squibb) were performed on sera from patients with atypical pneumonia and from individuals with known exposure to venereal infection. The results were compared with those obtained with sera from patients with upper respiratory infections and influenza and from normal individuals. All tests included egg-yolk control antigens and Kolmer complement-fixation tests for syphilis.2. 2. A modified micro Kolmer technic was used in testing with the “Lygranum CF” antigen which was comparable in sensitivity to the method recommended by the Squibb workers.3. 3. There were 98 “controls,” 102 atypical pneumonia patients and 126 venereally exposed individuals who had satisfactory tests. Complete fixation with a serum dilution of at least 1 to 5 was found, respectively, in 28.6, 28.4 and 39 per cent of each of these groups.4. 4. There was no correlation between the Kolmer serological test for syphilis and the “Lygranum” complement-fixation test. However, in the venereally exposed group there was a considerable number of patients whose serum reacted with the egg control antigen. Most of these showed positive Kolmer reactions. This phenomenon impairs the diagnostic value of the test among patients with venereal diseases.5. 5. Twice as many atypical pneumonia as control sera reacted with the normal egg antigen. This observation is discussed.6. 6. Quantitative titrations on a number of the positive sera from each group failed to reveal any clear-cut differentiation.7. 7. However, quantitative study of more than one specimen of sera from each of 11 patients with respiratory infections revealed that 7 had a change in titer with progression of their disease. In 2, there was a rise in titer and in 5, a fall. In 4 of these 5, the first specimen to be examined was drawn after the second week of illness.8. 8. Cutaneous and complement-fixation tests with “Lygranum” were performed on 77 venereally exposed patients. The serological test appeared more sensitive, though there were a few instances in which the cutaneous test was positive when complement fixation was negative.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）