Year: 1967
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Bronchitis-Moffat and Sutherland BDCLnJOURNAL 603 seem essential, therefore, that any future investigations into the aetiology of chronic bronchitis should include an intensive search for rhinoviruses along with the more routine virological and bacteriological methods.It is widely accepted that a fourfold or greater rise in antibody titre indicates viral infection, and for this reason virologists are continually stressing the importance of sending paired sera to the laboratory to demonstrate such a rise.The importance of this practice would seem to be supported strongly by our present results, which show that certain viral antibody titres may remain at high levels for several years.This finding does not appear to be restricted to chronic bronchitics, as a recent paper from Glasgow shows similar findings in cases and matched controls (Ross et al., 1967).This persistence of antibodies in individuals over 40 years of age may be due to repeated previous infection, but this does not alter the fact that a single sample of blood sent from such a patient would be of negligible diagnostic value.On the other hand, antibody titres above the persistent levels quoted in this paper may be significant.These levels may hold true only for this laboratory, but it should be possible for each laboratory to find such a level which would be of some help to the clinician anxious to establish a diagnosis on a single sample of serum. SummarySera from 20 patients with chronic bronchitis have been examined for viral complement-fixing antibodies over a period of four years.During this time 68 exacerbations occurred, but only 3 (4.4°/%) of them could be related to viral infection.Elevated antibody titres were found to persist over a long period of time and the significance of this finding is discussed.We would particularly acknowledge the co-operation of the patients involved in this study.
Source: BMJ
Authors: G. H. Walker, M. L. Bynoe, D. A. Tyrrell
Language: English
Subfield: Nutrition and Dietetics
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Wellcome Trust
OpenAlex ID: W2031385610