Multiple Precipitins to Cow's Milk in Chronic Respiratory Disease

Abstract

In July, 1959, an 8-month-old white boy was admitted to the University of Arkansas Medical Center because of severe chronic cough, persistent and changing pulmonary infiltrations, recurrent diarrhea, poor weight gain, and anemia. He had been studied in a local hospital on several occasions, and sweat chloride determinations had twice been normal; but persistence of severe symptoms necessitated a reevaluation. After sweat electrolyte and duodenal intubation studies had excluded the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, skin and serologic tests for tuberculosis and deep mycoses were performed. All skin tests were negative, as were precipitin tests for histoplasmosis,1blastomycosis,2and coccidioidomycosis. The patient's serum, however, did react strongly with a culture filtrate of virulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The serum was then tested for precipitins to 5 additional crude antigens prepared from mycobacterial culture filtrates, but in no instance was a reaction observed. These findings were unique, since none