Antiglobulins in endocarditis.

Twenty-five patients with endocarditis and serum antiglobulin activity were studied. The antiglobulins were detected by use of the latex agglutination reaction; only eight sera reacted with sensitized sheep cells and one with human O CD erythrocytes coated with anti-CD (Ripley) antibody. Absorption of the sera with the infecting organisms produced a decrease in antiglobulin activity in 10 of these sera. Absorption with other reference bacteria did not lower the titer of latex agglutination in 9 of 10 of these sera. No inhibition of antiglobulin activity by autologous immunoglobulin G was demonstrable. These findings suggest that some antiglobulins interact with the immunoglobulin G-bacterial complex and are analogous to anti-antibodies.