Dysgammaglobulinaemia in Tropical Sprue

Abstract

Study of immunoglobulin levels in 16 Indian control subjects showed that, compared with a Danish control series, they had a significantly higher mean level of IgG, but not of IgA or IgM. By contrast, the IgG levels in eight patients with tropical sprue were decreased or low normal in six cases and raised in only one case. Two patients with tropical sprue had agamma-A-globulinaemia. Turnover studies with ¹²⁵I-labelled IgG showed a high rate of synthesis in three Indian controls and an appreciably reduced or low rate in seven of the eight cases of tropical sprue.