HETEROPHILE ANTIBODY REACTION CAUSED BY BACTERIAL INFECTION

Abstract

A strain of Escherichia coli cultured from the blood of a patient with severe cystitis contained heterophile antigen. Following the bacteriemia the patient''s serum gave a positive heterophile antibody reaction (11600). The antibodies could be differentiated from the ones observed in serum sickness and in infectious mononucleosis, and were of the Forssman type, like those encountered in normal sera. The quick disappearance of the antibodies from the, blood and their lability in the specimen may account, at least in part, for the rarity with which heterophile antibody reactions of this kind are observed. There is probably a relation between the fluctuating titers of Forss-man antibodies and infections.