[Behavior of hemagglutination-inhibiting antibodies against measles and rubella in a group of children with chronic hepatitis].

The Authors studied the amount of anti-measles and anti-rubella heteroantibodies during chronic hepatitis and the possible role of these antibodies in eliciting and maintaining the hypergammaglobulinemic picture, characteristic of this morbid condition. The results they obtained in an almost exclusively pediatric case-list (37 cases) show, whenever the contact with these viruses (measles and rubella) occurred, a percentage of subjects with comparatively higher levels among chronic liver patients in comparison with control patients, of the same age. The percentage of subjects with previous rubella infection and hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody levels higher than 1:256 is about 45% among chronic liver patients, compared with 13% in healthy subjects. As far as measles virus is concerned the percentage drops from 11% to 4%. The most reliable hypotheses to explain this interesting phenomenon, which, however, does explain only partially, and concerning some cases only, the entity of the hypergammaglobulineamia, are set forth briefly.