Volume I0 Number 5, Part i May, 1984

Circulat ing i m m u n e complexes 731

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129. Steere AC, Malawista SE, Syndmann et al: Lyme ar- thritis: An epidemic of oligoarticular arthritis in chil- dren and adults in three Connecticut communities. Ar- thritis Rheum 20:7-17, 1977.

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133. Hardin JA, Walker JC, Steere AC, et al: Circulating immune complexes in Lyme arthritis: Detection by the 1-~ binding, C1q solid phase, and Raji cell assays, J Clin Invest 63:468-477, 1979.

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A B S T R A C T S

Growth hormone levels in psoriasis

MacKie R, Beastall GM, Thompson JA: Arch Dermatol Res 275:207, 1983.

Growth hormone anomalies in humans seem not to be linked to psoriasis in this excellent study of nine severely afflicted patients. The paper refutes Weber's report of seventy patients, without controls (Arch Dermatol Res, 1981). Simi- larly, successful therapy with bromocryptine has never been sustained in properly controlled clinical studies.

P.C.A .

Numerical and functional deficiency of suppressor T cells precedes development of atopic eczema

Chandra RK, Baker M: Lancet 2:1393-1394, 1983

T helper and T suppressor ceils were studied quantitatively and functionally in sixty asymptomatic infants at the age of 1

to 2 months. Thirty of the infants had a family history of atopic disease and thirty did not. Atopic eczema developed subsequently in eighteen of thirty (60%) of those infants with a positive family history and in six of thirty (20%) who did not have a positive family history.

The T helper/T suppressor ratios at the age of 1 to 2 months were statistically significantly higher in both groups of symptomatic infants as compared to those infants who did not develop atopie eczema. The authors believe that a defect of T cell regulation precedes clinical atopic disease and is of primary pathogenetic importance.

J.G.S.