The Weil-Felix Reaction in Patients with Proteus and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infections

[摘要] A minor antigen has been demonstrated which is common to human strains of Proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and to the “X” strains of Proteus routinely employed in the Weil-Felix test. The existence of this common minor antigen explains the positive Weil-Felix reactions exhibited by patients infected with Proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa . When tested with the Weil-Felix antigens, the sera of these patients show an agglutinative pattern different from that found in the rickettsial diseases. The agglutinative titer is usually lowest for Proteus OX19 , is somewhat higher for Proteus OX2 , and is highest for Proteus OXK . These findings are in agreement with the results of absorptive experiments which indicate that the strains of Proteus isolated from patients are most closely related antigenically to Proteus OXK .

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）