Serum Immunoglobulin Levels in Healthy Ethiopian School Children

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Date

1982-06

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Publisher

Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Serum conc ent r ations of immunoglobulins 19G, 19A and 19M in 258 healthy Et hiopian school children and 82 healthy adults residing in Addis Abeba were measured by the r adial immunodi ffusion t ec hnique . The r esults a r e presented as geometric mean values in mg/100 ml and as percent of the adult mean val ues. A statis- • tical analysis showed that the 19G a nd 19A concent r a tions at ages 8 and 7 r espectively were lower than the adult values . The infe renc e drawn from these r esults is that the 19G and 19A l evels do not r each the adult l e vel until a fter the age of 8 and 7 r espective l y . In c ontras t the 19M l evel was found to reach t he adult l e v e l before the age of 7 . No truly significant differences we r e observed in immunoglobulin l evels which could be attributed to se x , intestinal pa rasitic infection or socio-economic status . The mean values for IgG and 19M obtained from this study were found to be higher than the r e ferenc e values being used in the country a t the mome nt. I t is thus suggested that mean immunoglobulin conc entration val ues obtained from this s tudy be used as r e f e r ence values until furth e r study is made and more r e fined r e f e rence value s ar e set .

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Keywords

Healthy Ethiopian School Children

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