Abstract
Noble 1 has described an accurate method of determining agglutinins in the blood within 2 minutes after setting up the test. Since agglutinin response in pneumonia has been found to be fairly well correlated with the clinical course of the disease, in untreated cases by Blake 2 and in serum treated cases by Cole, 3 we felt that a thorough trial of this new method of agglutinin determination was indicated.
In several patients with lobar pneumonia we have correlated the appearance of agglutinins with the dosage of serum and with the appearance of protective bodies in the patient's blood serum and we present these results pending the examination of a larger series. In I case of lobar pneumonia caused by pneumococcus Type IV, small doses of Felton's concentrated anti-pneumococcus serum (polyvalent against Types I, II and III) were given at varying intervals, and samples of blood serum taken at corresponding intervals were examined for agglutinins and protective bodies against the 3 fixed types of pneumococcus.
From these figures we may conclude that following the administration of Felton's polyvalent serum, agglutinins appear after a certain amount of protection has been established.
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