ABSTRACT
Patients on chronic dialysis who are supposed to disclose an impairment of the immune potential, seldom show clinical viral illnesses. Since severe varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection develops in immunocompromised patients, we have examined the proliferative activity to VZV in the blood lymphocytes of 16 patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and compared it to healthy matched controls. The cellular in vitro response of these patients to specific VZV antigens was essentially normal. The mean stimulation index for CAPD patients was 7.06, and for matched controls 3.68 (p greater than 0.05). The mean percentage of lymphocytes in CAPD patients as determined by CD3 monoclonal antibodies was 57%, the CD4 helper and CD8 suppressor cells were 41 and 21%, respectively. When those 16 CAPD patients were followed up for the presence of anti-VZV IgA, IgM and IgG immunofluorescent antibody to membrane antigen antibodies during a period of 6 months, the recrudescence of VZV was documented by the appearance of IgA and IgM antibodies and/or fourfold increase in IgG titer in some patients, but no clinical illness was observed. The frequent reactivation of the virus without clinical symptoms in patients undergoing long-term intermittent chronic hemodialysis (HD) or CAPD was strengthened by the presence of increased anti-VZV geometric mean titers (52.68 and 53.00, respectively) in these patients as compared to control subjects (11.75).
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Viral/analysis , Antigens, Viral/immunology , Herpes Zoster/immunology , Herpesvirus 3, Human/immunology , Lymphocyte Activation/immunology , Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory , Renal Dialysis , Adult , Aged , Female , Fluorescent Antibody Technique , Herpes Zoster/epidemiology , Humans , Kidney Failure, Chronic/immunology , Kidney Failure, Chronic/therapy , Male , Middle Aged , T-Lymphocyte Subsets/immunologyABSTRACT
Hypouricemia with hyperuricosuria due to isolated renal tubular defects are rare conditions. Two patients with hypouricemia and hyperuricosuria were studied for derangements in the renal urate transport with the combined probenecid-pyrazinamide test. In the first patient a significant decrease (64.5%) in the urate clearance--creatinine clearance ratio was noted after pyrazinamide administration, suggesting a post-secretory urate reabsorption defect, whereas the significant rise (44.2%) in urate clearance after the administration of probenecid indicates that this defect may not be complete. In the second patient there was a rise of 96.9% in the urate clearance--creatinine clearance ratio after the administration of probenecid and a decline of 31.6% in that ratio after pyrazinamide. These results suggest a defect in the presecretory reabsorptive site, with a highly significant response most probably of the postsecretory reabsorptive site to probenecid.
