الفهرس 
Introduction to immunoglobulin AOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 131 |  |  |
| | | from | 131 | | |
Abstract
IgA is the major protective immunoglobulin of external secretions that is those of the gastrointestinal, respiratory and urogenital tracts, but it is also present in the circulation against bacterial and viral microorganisms.
IgA deficiency is the most common primary immune deficiency disorder. Prevalence of IgA varies around the world, developed countries had their own registries, but in developing countries there is no registration for PID cases.
Most patients with IgA deficiency are asymptomatic because of compensatory increases of IgG and IgM, but some may suffer from frequent “mainly respiratory and gastrointestinal” infections.
The aim of our study is to evaluate Serum IgA level among children with recurrent infections in one governorate (Assiut) in Egypt in order to have an idea about the prevalence of the disease in our community, and to detect the criteria that help in early detection of immune deficiency.
The current study comprised 70 infants and children with recurrent infection. These infants and children were enrolled from Assiut governorate after fulfilling one or more of our inclusion criteria. These patients were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination.
Laboratory evaluation was undertaken including: complete blood count (CBC), serum IgA level for all patients, and serum IgG and IgM levels for IgA deficient patients.
The study revealed that 3 (4.3%) patients (group I) showed decreased serum IgA levels while 67 (95.7%) patients (group II) showed normal serum IgA levels in relation to age.
When we compared the two groups, we found that both groups were matched in terms of age at presentation, gender distribution and age at onset of symptoms. However, group (I) showed significantly higher frequency of hospitalization, presence of family history and parent consanguinity, mean of IDR score, total leukocytic count and absolute neutrophilic count. A significant positive correlation between serum IgA levels and age of patients was found and in both groups.
Clinical manifestations of patients in the current study, revealed that the most associated clinical presentation was bronchitis, followed by bronchopneumonia, diarrhea, tonsillopharyngitis and otitis media.