T System Immune-Deficiency in Down's Syndrome

Abstract

Children with Down's syndrome (mongolism) are known to suffer frequent infections, particularly of the respiratory tract. This clinical observation has been confirmed in an epidemiological study in Denmark showing a 50-fold increased incidence of infectious diseases and a 123-fold increase of respiratory infections in mongols as compared to the normal population. In a clinicopathological study of all infants dying in our hospital over a period of ten years, we were impressed by the finding that all 13 cases of mongolism coming to autopsy showed marked lymphocyte depletion of thymus and lymph nodes.