Abstract
By applying Ray's “hemolytic” test, 1 Sia 2 found that the blood of Kala-azar patients always hemolizes to a cloudy solution which on standing deposits a flocculent precipitate, whereas in normal subjects and in other patients studied, including severe anemia, it hemolizes to a clear solution which remains clear. Later Sia and Wu 3 showed that the turbidity is due to serum globulin and that Ray's “hemolytic” test is really a globulin precipitation test for Kala-azar. They also found that there is, in the blood of Kala-azar patients, an absolute decrease of serum albumin and an absolute increase of serum globulin. Since the test is performed by adding 20 cmm. of blood to 0.6 cc. of distilled water, 4 and since euglobulin is precipitated simply by dilution with water, it is desirable to know whether the turbidity and precipitate are determined by the amount of euglobulin in the serum. We have, therefore, made quantitative determinations of different fractions of serum protein in normal subjects and in Kala-azar patients. In all cases of Kala-azar the globulin test by Sia's method was positive and stained smears made from splenic pulp showed Leishman-Donovan bodies.
The serum proteins were fractionated with different concentrations of sodium sulphate according to the technic of Howe. 5 Tables I and II give the results of determinations on normal subjects and on patients with Kala-azar respectively. By comparing the figures in these 2 series it will be seen that euglobulin in Kala-azar serum is increased 3 to 13 times and amounts to 30 to 63% of the total serum globulin; the pseudo-globulin I is nearly twice, in some cases more than twice, as much as in normal serum.
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