Variations of immunoglobulins in disease.

The introduction of simple methods for the immunochemical quantitation of human immunoglobulins has been followed by the publication of several hundred papers during the past 10 years concerning the diagnostic significance of quantitative changes in these proteins in human body fluids. The subject was extensively reviewed in 1971 by Professor Hobbs and no fundamentally new findings can be reported at the present time. The following survey will consist mainly of a review of confirmatory data taken from more recent publications. First the analytical methods used for quantitative estimation of immunoglobulins will be reviewed briefly, followed by a discussion of the normal ranges and the problems of interlaboratory standardization. Finally the usefulness of immunoglobulin analysis will be illustrated by a survey of some selected pathological conditions in which immunoglobulin determinations are of proven clinical value.