© 1980 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Serum Immunoglobulin Values in White and Black South African Pre-school Children
PART2: CHILDREN WITH RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS
National Research Institute for Nutritional Diseases of the South African Medical Research Council, and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Pretoria
*(Present address: c/o The South African Embassy, Casella Postale 6204, 00195 Roma, Italia.)
Serum immunoglobulin (Ig) G, A and M levels were measured in white and black children with acute bronchopneumonia and in white children with recurrent respiratory infections. The values were compared with those of an age-matched group of healthy white and black, children. The levels of white children with bronchopneumonia on the whole were higher for all 3 main immunoglobulin classes than those of the white healthy subjects, the differences between their serum IgA and IgM levels being statistically significant. Black, children with bronchopneumonia generally had higher values for serum IgA and IgM than their healthy counterparts, the differences between their serum IgA values being significant. White children with recurrent respiratory infections generally had increased serum IgM levels that differed significantly from those of healthy children. Inter-racially, black children with bronchopneumonia on the whole had higher serum levels for IgG, IgA and IgM than the white patients and in the case of all 3 immunoglobulins the differences were statistically significant.
Serum immunoglobulin deficiences were not demonstrated in children with bronchopneumonia irrespective of race, nor in white children with recurrent respiratory infections.