Phenomenon of Local Tissue Reactivity and Its Immunological, Pathological and Clinical Significance

Abstract

Shwartzman has rendered an important service to medical science in bringing together and correlating in monograph form the extensive studies on his phenomenon of local skin reactivity (Shwartzman phenomenon) accumulated during the past decade. The first ten of the thirteen chapters of the volume deal with laboratory investigative aspects of the phenomenon, while in the last three chapters the author attempts to correlate his phenomenon with related phenomena in pathology and immunity, discussing particularly the significance of the phenomenon and its clinical application. The latter is in the experimental stage, and definite procedures of diagnostic and curative value, based on the Shwartzman phenomenon, are yet to be established. The phenomenon is of dramatic interest. If a small amount of bacterial filtrate is injected into the skin of a rabbit, a slight inflammatory reaction will appear in the area of injection in about twenty-four hours. If at about that time the