Abstract
Summary
Six patients with Farmers Lung and 10 controls were challenged with an antigen extracted from moldy hay by aerosol inhalation. Precipitin reactions in agar gel im-munodiffusion were strongly positive in 4 patients, weakly reactive in one, and not present in one. Clinical, hematologic and physiologic data are presented on the 6 patients challenged in an identical manner and on the 10 control subjects. Responses to this challenge in the patient group were qualitatively identical to the reaction each patient experienced when exposed to moldy hay in the barn or silo. These moldy hay antigens are, thus, concluded to be the etiologic agents responsible for the disease, Farmers Lung.
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