ABSTRACT
Ninety-six institutionalized elderly (greater than 70 years old) (mean age: 82 +/- 7 years) subjects, negative for tetanus toxoid antibodies were primed with tetanus toxoid vaccination and dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). Correlations were studied between some immunological parameters, nutritional parameters prior to immunization and the immune response intensity after it. Levels of tetanus toxoid specific IgG (ELISA assay) were positively correlated with monocyte phagocytosis, DNCB response and prealbumin levels, and negatively correlated with total IgG, monocyte immune degradation and tetanus toxoid lymphocyte stimulation. No correlation was observed with IgA, IgM, PHA stimulation. Tetanus toxoid lymphocyte stimulation correlated positively with response to DNCB, and negatively with tetanus toxoid IgG as well as total IgG. DNCB response correlated with prealbumin, tetanus toxoid IgG and tetanus toxoid lymphocyte stimulation. Therefore, it appears that malnutrition, as measured by prealbumin level, is one of the main factors contributing to the inconstant senile immunodeficiency. Monocyte antigenic degradation function unaltered with age can impair immune response while conserved or increased phagocytosis enhances immune response in the elderly. High total IgG levels were linked with low specific responses to priming antigens. High specific antibody levels also correlated negatively with cellular specific response. It is assumed that regulatory IgG antibody accumulation, likely anti-idiotypic antibodies, play an important role in senile immunological depletion.
Subject(s)
Aging , Antibody Formation , Immunity, Cellular , Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes/immunology , Nutrition Disorders/immunology , Vaccination , Aged , Dinitrochlorobenzene , Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay , Female , Humans , Immunization , Immunoglobulin G/immunology , Lymphocyte Activation , Male , Monocytes/immunology , Phagocytosis , T-Lymphocytes/immunology , Tetanus Toxoid/administration & dosageABSTRACT
Previous studies having shown differences in the clinical presentation of hyperthyroidism in the young and in the over sixty-years old patients, we studied the presentation of hyperthyroidism of late onset without previous thyroid disorder to determine if it continued to change with age after 55 years. Two hundred and ninety cases of hyperthyroidism presenting after the age of 55 years without a previous history of goitre, collected in the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Pitié Hospital between January 1976 and May 1980, were analysed retrospectively. There was no significant correlation between age and heart rate or total circulating thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) concentration. A positive correlation with weight loss and a negative correlation with I 131 fixation were observed. It was higher in cases of atrial fibrillation and hyperthyroidism with normal thyroid scintigraphy. Graves' disease with goitre was associated with the most overt signs of thyrotoxicosis and the highest hormonal concentrations, contrarily to toxic adenoma. The T3 but not T4 concentration correlated positively with heart rate. T3 and T4 were positively correlated with weight loss, and this correlation remained significant at constant T4 and T3 concentrations.