INFANTILE FIRST LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT INFECTIONS AND DYSFUNCTIONAL SERUM IgG SUBCLASSES

Dai J-H

Children’s Hospital, Chongqing University of Medical Science, Chongqing, China

 

Objective: To study the relationship between first lower respiratory tract infections and changes of serum IgG subclasses.

Methods: One hundred and eighty-five infants with first lower respiratory tract infections were selected randomly to detect serum IgG, IgA, IgM and IgG subclasses by ELISA. The findings were compared with the reference values of the serum IgG, IgA, IgM and IgG subclasses from local healthy infants. The findings that were below the lower limits of reference values (x-1.96s) were regarded as Ig or IgG subclass deficiency,while that were beyond the upper limits of  reference values(x+1.96s) were regarded as Ig or IgG subclass increasing.

Results: There were 43 patients with IgG deficiency had IgG subclass deficiency out 185 cases. And 120 cases of IgG subclass deficiency were found in 142 patients left whose IgG levels were normal. The total rate of incidence of IgG subclass deficiency was 84.51%. Among patients from birth to three months old, there were 29 cases of three and four kinds of IgG subclass deficiency and the rate was 85.29% which was the highest in all ages.

Conclusions: We found that IgG subclass deficiency indeed existed in infants with first lower respiratory tract infections. It was more common to have IgG subclass deficiency in infants when the patients were much younger. Therefore what should be noticed is not only the total serum IgG level but also serum IgG subclass concentration in infantile first lower respiratory tract infections.

 

 

 
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