Abstract
Applying the Tillett-Garner plasma-clot technic 1 with rate of thrombolysis as the quantitative index, Dack, Woolpert and Hoyne 2 found a slight correlation between thrombolytic titer and clinical severity of scarlet fever. At the time of the publication of their paper a similar study of scarlatinal streptococci was in progress in our laboratories We had selected the more delicate isolated fibrinclot technic, however, with serial-dilution methods of determining lytic titer.
The 60 strains of S. scarlatinae used in this study were originally isolated in The Connaught Laboratories, University of Toronto. With 43 of these strains Dick-toxin titrations have been made by one of us (F). The fibrinolytic titrations were made in Stanford University (M). Both series of titrations are summarized in Table I.
From Table I it is seen that there is a slight correlation between toxin-titer and fibrinolysin-titer with scarlatinal streptococci. The
2 population quadrants composed of strains either simultaneously superior, or simultaneously inferior in both fibrinolysin and toxin production, together contain 32 strains, or 75% of the population.
An attempted correlation of toxin-titer and symptomatology is recorded in Table II.
From Table II it is seen that there are 13 strains in the left-upper quadrant in which high toxin-titer is associated with “severe” symptoms, and 13 strains in the right-lower quadrant in which low toxin-titer is associated with “mild” or “moderate” symptoms. These 2 quadrants together contain 26 strains or 63% of the population.
An attempted correlation of fibrinolysin-titer with symptomatology is recorded in Table III.
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