فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Little is known about changes in total antibodies occurring during the progressionof tuberculosis or its treatment. Using passive and reverse passive hemagglutinationmethods, mycobacterial antibody and antigen were determined in sera of patients withacute smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis.Methods: Fifty-nine patients were studied in different groups according to the duration oftreatment in various stages of disease. The first group that did not undergo treatmentshowed a very low level of antibody. The second group with less than 6 months of therapyhad a mean antibody titer of about 1:70. The third group underwent therapy for more than6 months and their mean antibody titer was about 1:970. The fourth group whose diseasewas under control and their treatments were discontinued, showed the highest level of antibodies(1:2760). Results: A significant difference was found between the average antibodytiters and the duration of treatment and course of disease. No antigen was detectedin any patients except in group 5.Conclusion: A high antibody response seemed to occur after treatment when the bacteriawere disrupted and their antigens released. Absence of antigen may be due to the formationof antigen-antibody complexes.