Abstract
The special characteristics and relative immaturity of the immune system in human neonates favour the constitution and persistence of circulating immune complexes after any antigenic invasion so that their detection in serum during the first week of life could be of particular interest for the early diagnosis of a neonatal infection.
In this study, using a technique based on the inhibition of a latex agglutination, we detected circulating immune complexes in sixty-four neonates suspected of infection, at a significantly higher titre than in eleven newborns considered to be completely devoid of any clinical abnormalities.
The level of those circulating immune complexes was related to the severity of a clinical score of infection and of a total score including several events of the pregnancy and delivery usually considered as a high risk of infection. On the other hand, no significant correlation was found between the infection score and the level of fibrinogen in the blood or the percentage of non-segmented neutrophils. Moreover, no correlation was demonstrated between each of these two classical biological tests and the level of circulating immune complexes.
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