Total Serum Complement Research Articles

Ultrastructure of the lung in idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis

An ultrastructural study of a lung specimen obtained by needle biopsy from a thirty-five month old child with idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis revealed a break in the continuity of the basement membrane of an alveolar capillary. Efforts to implicate an autoimmune reaction as the cause for basement membrane lysis were unsuccessful: the levels of total serum complement and serum immunoglobulins were normal; no antibodies to normal lung, desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), extractable nuclear antigen (ENA) or milk proteins Were identified; and no deposits of protein on capillary basement membrane were observed by electron microscopy.

Complement levels before and after radiotherapy in cancer patients.

Total serum complement levels were measured in a group of 31 patients with various malignancies before, during, and after radiotherapy. Levels were slightly higher than normal on average, but there wa

Arteriovenous complement activity differences across the human lesser circulation.

Total serum complement activity (CH50) was assayed in 8 healthy subjects, 352 consecutive patients, and 30 male patients who underwent diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Analyses of complement activity in the 8 healthy subjects revealed that the measured variation due to analytical error was quite small when compared with variation among subjects, variation due to sex, and variation due to the day of collection. Mean complement activity was higher in the 352 consecutive patients than in healthy subjects. Complement activity was greater in women than in men, but was highest and most variable in the 30 men undergoing cardiac catheterization. The average pulmonary arterial-systemic arterial (PA-A) complement activity difference measured in catheterized patients was small (−4.0 ± 32.1 CH50 units per ml); however, 5 patients had PA-A CH50 values that deviated from the mean for this group by more than two standard deviations. Three patients with documented recent pulmonary embolism had low mixed venous complem...

Behavior of Total Serum Complement in Hodgkin’s Disease and Other Malignant Lymphomas

Abstract Using the method of Mayer and collaborators for the determination of complement in the blood serum, 67 normal persons, 72 patients with Hodgkin’s disease, 28 with other types of lymphoma and 65 with cancer involvement of various organs were studied. Fifty-eight of 72 Hodgkin’s disease patients were found to have an elevated level of complement, 12 a normal level and 2 a below-normal level. Elevated levels were found also in patients with other lymphomas and cancer. An association between elevated complement, increased sedimentation level, decreased serum properdin, positive C-reactive protein and elevated beta globulin in the serum was noted. The conclusion reached is that an elevation of complement in the serum indicates that Hodgkin’s disease is in an active phase. As to the nature of the disease, the statistics assembled seem to give no clue.