Complement Fixation in Human Malaria

[摘要] Analyses of our data show that the complement-fixation test in malaria is very closely correlated with the presence or recent presence of malarial parasites in the peripheral blood. In sera from individuals known to be infected with malaria a strongly positive complement-fixation test means the presence or recent presence of malarial parasites in the peripheral blood. A negative complement-fixation does not rule out the presence of malarial parasites. From the standpoint of diagnosis the complement-fixation test in malaria would appear to be especially valuable in infection with Plasmodium falciparum wherein malarial parasites appear in the peripheral blood only on alternate days during the acute clinical attack.All the analyses tend to show that the standardized antigen used in our second series of complement-fixation tests is more sensitive than the antigens prepared after the methods of other workers.Positive complement-fixation is more closely correlated with the presence or recent presence of malarial parasites in the peripheral blood than with the presence of chills or fever. In the individual patient the test tends, as a rule, to become more strongly positive as the number of parasites increase in the blood. As the parasites disappear, the antibody-titer of the serum decreases. In the second series of 18 cases of induced malaria, 17 showed, at one time or another during the course of the disease, strongly positive complement-fixation, and no strongly positive reaction was obtained in patients without malaria.We wish to thank Dr. F. L. Roberts, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Tennessee, for his kindness in making a statistical analysis of these data. All this work was under a cooperative grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority, The Tennessee State Department of Public Health, the University of Tennessee and the Commissioners of Shelby County.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）