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The Weil-Felix Reaction in Patients with Proteus and Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Infections

1942; American Association of Immunologists; Volume: 44; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4049/jimmunol.44.3.251

1550-6606

Gustave J. Dammin, F. T. Billings,

Blood groups and transfusion

Summary A minor antigen has been demonstrated which is common to human strains of Proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and to the “X” strains of Proteus routinely employed in the Weil-Felix test. The existence of this common minor antigen explains the positive Weil-Felix reactions exhibited by patients infected with Proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. When tested with the Weil-Felix antigens, the sera of these patients show an agglutinative pattern different from that found in the rickettsial diseases. The agglutinative titer is usually lowest for Proteus OX19, is somewhat higher for Proteus OX2, and is highest for Proteus OXK. These findings are in agreement with the results of absorptive experiments which indicate that the strains of Proteus isolated from patients are most closely related antigenically to Proteus OXK.