The Bactericidal Power of Blood from Patients and Normal Controls for Staphylococci

Abstract

Summary and Conclusions An attempt has been made to demonstrate the presence of antibacterial immunity in patients with staphylococcal sepsis. The bactericidal power of whole defibrinated blood from patients and normal individuals has been evaluated for several strains of staphylococci. The killing power of the bloods from twenty-five patients and eighteen normal persons has been determined. Thirty-one strains of staphylococci were used, seventeen of them isolated from patients included in this report. All the strains proved to be pathogenic when studied by one or more tests for pathogenicity. The bloods of both patients and normal controls possessed little or no killing power for the seventeen strains isolated from the patients. In some instances, an appreciable number of organisms from heterologous strains were killed by the bloods of patients and normal controls. The significance of this is discussed.