Bacteriological and Immunological Studies of Acute Glomerulonephritis in New Orleans

Abstract

Conclusion

This limited bacteriological and immunological search for evidence of the presence or absence of the hemolytic streptococcus in a relatively southern city, where one type of probable hemolytic streptococcus disease (glomerulonephritis) is present in “normal” amount and other types are decreased has shown that the hemolytic streptococcus can be cultivated from the throats of a majority of individuals with acute nephritis. It has been possible to demonstrate normal carriers for the hemolytic streptococcus. Furthermore, antibody active against the soluble streptolysin (hemo-toxin) of S. kemolyticus was increased in cases of acute glomerulo-nephritis. There also was the same degree of skin reactivity to the nucleoprotein of the hemolytic streptococcus in the South as in New York. These bacteriological and immunological findings therefore substantiate the clinical data already reported and give still further evidence that acute glomerulonephritis in the South as in the North is usually the result of a hemolytic streptococcus infection.

No opportunity was available to evaluate the relative frequency of the hemolytic streptococcus in the throats of the population at large in New Orleans as compared with New York nor to determine its seasonal incidence. Information on both these subjects would be interesting and possibly helpful in solving the basic problem which still remains, namely the reason for the “normal” incidence of one type of hemolytic streptococcus disease (acute glomerulonephritis) in the presence of a decreased incidence of other types of hemolytic streptococcus disease (scarlet fever, rheumatic fever) in the South. All strains isolated in New Orleans were brought back to New York and are being compared culturally and immunological-ly with a series of hemolytic streptococci isolated from the throats of individuals in New York City.