Complement activation during cardiopulmonary bypass.

We researched complement activation of fifteen patients who had open heart surgery and on ten patients who had closed heart surgery. Our results showed that the complement system was partially activated by the anaesthesia and partially by tissue damage. This activation was aggravated when plasma contacted the pump-oxygenator system, continued in the intensive-care unit and became normal in the 24th hour after the operation. Complement activation occurred both via the alternative and classical pathways but the alternative pathway was activated more than the classical with increase in bypass time. Pulmonary sequestration of leucocytes which occurred due to the complement activation and the complement derived inflammatory mediators could have contributed to the pathogenesis of the post-pump syndrome.

Serum IgD concentrations in immunodeficiency diseases.

Serum IgD levels were determined in 66 patients with well-defined primary immunodeficiency diseases. The two major groups of patients consisted of those with ataxia-telangiectasia (38 patients) and those with selective IgA deficiency (11 patients). The ataxia-telangiectasia patients tended to have higher serum IgD levels while no significant difference was found in the serum IgD levels of the selective IgA deficiency patients when compared with the controls. No correlation was found between the IgD levels and the presence of frequent infections in both patient groups or the associated disorders present in the selective IgA deficiency patients. The percentage of low serum IgD phenotype in the normal subjects was similar to that described in the literature.

IgG subclass deficiency in children with recurrent infections.

IgG subclass levels were studied in 12 children, aged between 2.5-12 years with recurrent respiratory tract infections. They did not have low IgG levels or IgA deficiency. We found combined deficiency of IgG2-IgG4 in one patient and selective IgG2 deficiency in another (16.6% of patients). These two patients had bronchiectasis due to recurrent severe pneumonia, however one patient with bronchiectasis had normal IgG subclass concentrations. Our IgG subclass-deficient patients who did not respond to prophylactic antibiotic therapy were given gammaglobulin therapy. IgG subclass deficiency should be considered in children with unexplained recurrent infections even in the presence of normal serum immunoglobulin levels.

Rotaviruses in infants with diarrhea studied by viral RNA electrophoresis in Ankara, Turkey.

PIP: Incidence of rotavirus in children under 2 years of age, admitted to 2 children's hospitals i n Ankara, Turkey, from July 1984-June 1985 was measured using viral RNA electrophoresis in agarose gels. 375 children were selected at random from over 14,000 diarrhea admissions, and their stool specimens taken on admission were compared to those of 333 children without diarrhea. 61 (16.3%) of the diarrhea cases had detectable rotavirus, compared to 0% in controls. Bacteriologic tests for salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter jejuni were positive for 51 (13.6%) of the diarrhea patients and 1.8% of controls. 1 child had both rotavirus and Salmonella. Rotavirus infection was highest in November- March, peaking in December. Bacterial diarrhea was prevalent in the summer. This pattern is typical of a temperate climate, although in developed countries bacterial gastroenteritis is not as prevalent. Since there are about 2340 diarrhea admissions annually for rotavirus in Ankara, from a population of 2,700,000, rotavirus vaccination seems appropriate.^ieng

The alterations of whole saliva constituents in patients with diabetes mellitus.

The present study was undertaken in order to determine the possible alterations in whole saliva and the periodontal status in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), and was conducted on 17 patients with DM and 17 systemically and periodontally healthy subjects. When the subjects were evaluated clinically, significantly increased probing depths were noticed in the DM group when compared with the healthy subjects. In whole saliva samples, sodium, potassium, total protein, amylase, thiocyanate, and secretory IgA levels were determined in both groups. Difference between the two groups regarding the mean salivary potassium levels were found to be statistically significant since the mean salivary potassium levels in the DM and the control groups were 2.470 +/- 9.04 mmol/L and 14.30 +/- 8.88 mmol/L, respectively. The mean salivary total protein, amylase and secretory IgA levels in the DM group were 2.41 +/- 1.0 mg/mL, 124.2 +/- 79.7 U/mL and 6.86 +/- 3.50 mg/L, all being significantly higher than the control group. However, no significant differences could be shown for the salivary sodium and thiocyanate levels. Nor was there any difference between non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). The findings of the present study suggest that, besides the clinical examinations, the determination of the possible alterations in the composition of whole saliva might also be helpful in understanding the increased severity of periodontal disease in diabetic patients.

Clinical and immunological characteristics of patients with rheumatoid arthritis and periodontal disease.

Various clinical and immunological parameters were determined in patients with RA and patients with adult periodontitis. There were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to the number of missing teeth, although pocket depths and gingival inflammation scores were significantly increased in the periodontitis group (p less than 0.05). Salivary IgM levels were below the minimum detectable level in both groups, and no significant differences were evident between the two groups with regard to salivary IgG and IgA levels. However, serum IgG, IgA and IgM levels in RA patients were significantly higher than in periodontitis patients (p less than 0.05), indicating enhanced humoral immunity. The present findings suggest that RA patients are not a risk group for advanced periodontal problems in comparison with age- and sex-matched systemically healthy controls.

Familial Behçet's disease.

OBJECTIVES: To highlight the frequency, clinical features and histocompatibility antigen types of the familial form of Behçet's disease. METHODS: Twenty-seven cases with familial Behçet's disease in 12 families were evaluated according to clinical features, sites of involvement, HLA-A and HLA-B typing. A review of the literature is presented. RESULTS: The frequency of familial form of Behçet's disease was found to be 8.7% among 137 patients studied. Vascular involvement was 7.4% (2/27) in the familial group while it was 28.8% (36/125) in patients without the familial form of the disease (p < 0.01). HLA-B51(5) and HLA-A2 were positive in 68% and 75% in 16 familial cases studied, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Familial Behçet's disease, which constitutes a small group of patients with Behçet's disease, may represent a clinically heterogeneous subtype of this entity. Although lower frequency of vascular complications was observed in this study, it is not possible to indicate the precise frequency of vascular and ocular complications of the familial form of Behçet's disease. The frequencies of HLA-A2 and HLA-B51(5) positivity are higher than the previously reported non-Behçet's controls from Turkey.