Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W M Behan.
Complement components were measured and immune complexes were sought in 75 patients with myasthenia gravis. Thirty-four per cent had decreased concentrations of complement component C4, and 29% had circulating immune complexes. The greatest immunological abnormalities were found in patients with mild disease which supports recent immunoelectronmicroscopic findings.
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Patients with and without adverse reactions on practolol therapy showed altered immune responses. There was cutaneous anergy to Candida albicans and streptokinase/streptodornase antigens and depression of lymphocyte function in vitro. Anticomplementary activity and a wide range of autoantibodies were found in patients who had received practolol.
Although five patients with severe pre-eclamptic toxaemia (PET) had increased anticomplementary activity in their serum, there was no evidence of complement activation in the plasma of four of the five patients. These results are not implicated in the pathogenesis of PET. No significant correlation was found between anticomplementary activity and pregnancy-associated alpha2-glycoprotein.
The effect of transfer factor prepared from relatives of patients with multiple sclerosis (M.S.) and from unrelated donors on the clinical course of M.S. has been studied in fifteen male and fifteen female patients. Some patients were given transfer factor and some placebo (physiological saline). Results of three independent clinical examinations by different neurologists and subjective assessments by the patients showed no difference between those given transfer factor and those given placebo.
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Humoral antibodies to skeletal muscle and its components and to thymus have been demonstrated in the sera of patients with myasthenia gravis. A role for cellular hypersensitivity to similar antigens in the pathogenesis of the disease has been suggested by some reports of the presence of cellular immunity. A detailed immunological study using muscle and thymic antigens, including those prepared from the patients' own tissues, failed to confirm these findings. It is suggested that previous reports of cellular hypersensitivity represent the demonstration of an epiphenomenon.