Heterophile antibodies in trypanosomiasis

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Abstract
One hundred sera from cases of trypanosomiasis taken at varying stages of the disease have shown that the sheep cell agglutinin titre is significantly higher than in a series of one hundred control sera taken from patients suffering from a wide variety of tropical diseases, and from normal individuals. The antibody present in these cases of trypanosomiasis is strongly but not completely absorbed by both beef cells and guineapig kidney. The differences between this and other heterbgenetic antibodies have been noted. Possible sources of the antigen responsible for eliciting this heterophile antibody response have been considered, and further lines of investigation are suggested. Care must be taken before a diagnosis of infective mononucleosis is made in the tropics, or in patients recently returned from the tropics. The Kahn reaction does not appear to influence or be influenced by the occurrence, to high titre, of sheep cell agglutinins in trypanosomiasis. Autohaemagglutination was not noted as a constant feature in trypanosomiasis.