Species-Specific Precipitins in Serum Sickness after Intravenous Injection of Refined, Concentrated Antipneumococcal Rabbit Serum

[摘要] The sera of 20 pneumonic patients treated intravenously with refined and concentrated rabbit antipneumococcal serum were examined on several occasions after the treatment. Circulating species-specific precipitins for rabbit protein were detected between the 6th and the 21st day after the intravenous serum treatment in the sera of 10 patients (50 per cent).The precipitative antibodies were detected in one patient on the 6th day after the intravenous serum treatment. In the remaining patients they appeared between the 9th and the 11th day and disappeared from the circulation 20 to 22 days after the intravenous injection. They were found most frequently between the 12th and the 18th day, usually when other symptoms of serum sickness had already disappeared. There was no direct relationship between the amount of seurm injected (10 to 109 ml) and the appearance of precipitins.Precipitins were not detected in the sera of 20 control patients, suffering from pneumonia and treated with antipneumococcal rabbit serum (5 to 237 ml), who did not show clinical manifestations of serum sickness.Our observations conform with reports on the presence of antibodies in serum sickness due to horse-serum injections (10). The precipitin-reaction may confirm the diagnosis of serum sickness, but the absence of circulating precipitins does not exclude it. It may be found after the symptoms have disappeared.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）