To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: DG DISPATCH - ECFC: CF Patients Have Higher Immune Responses To C. Albicans URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/107496.htm Doctor's Guide June 14, 1999
By Martin Goldman Special to DG News THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS -- June 14, 1999 -- Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) have significantly higher immune responses to Candida albicans compared to individuals without the condition as a response to colonisation of the respiratory tract by this yeast. Dr. L Maiz, of the pneumonology department, Ramon Y. Cajal Hospital, Madrid, Spain, and her colleagues carried out a prospective six-year evaluation, to find the importance of C. albicans and the immune response this produced in patients with cystic fibrosis. The results were presented at the European Cystic Fibrosis Congress. A total of 76 cystic fibrosis patients were evaluated over the six-year period and 1,239 samples of respiratory secretions were cultivated for the presence of bacteria. In 66 of these patients, 400 serum samples obtained every three to four months were analysed during the last three years of the study. The researchers evaluated the samples for total IgE, IgG, IgA and IgM against C. albicans using the ELISA assay. Of the patients studied, 588 respiratory secretion samples were positive for C. albicans (87.9 percent); 90.8 percent presented some kind of immune response against C. albicans. There was a significant correlation between the degree of colonisation and the IgG and IgA against C. albicans and this had an R value of not less than 0.6. The researchers concluded that patients with cystic fibrosis present significantly higher immune responses to C. albicans compared to normal subjects as a response to colonisation of the respiratory tract. Pulmonary deterioration of the patients facilitates C. albicans colonisation and the degree of colonisation is paralleled by the immune response. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.