Comparison of a Lactate Dehydrogenase Elevating Viruslike Agent and Eperythrozoon Coccoides.

Abstract

Summary Eperythrozoon coccoides (EC), a Bartonella-like organism existing as a widespread latent infection in rodents, has been separated from other known infectious contaminants so that its influence on plasma LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) elevation and other pathological properties could be studied and compared with those of an LDH elevating viruslike agent. Distinct differences in their LDH elevating characteristics were demonstrated. The viruslike agent induces a high and sustained elevation while that produced by EC is usually unremarkable in magnitude in normal intact animals, and is invariably transitory. In combination, the two infectious entities act synergistically to produce higher plasma enzyme elevations than their additive separate effects. Recent suggestions that EC may be responsible for the LDH elevations originally reported appear to be in error.