[Assessing the immune status in acute infections: a new methodological approach]

A pathogenetic approach to assessing the immune status of infectious patients is proposed. It consists in detection of the major variants of immune response in this or that infection by the characteristic time course of proliferative activity of phytohemagglutinin-stimulated T lymphocytes. Four similar types of immune response were distinguished in children with acute respiratory viral infection and oropharyngeal diphtheria by this method. These types differ by the intensity of antibody production, production of antigen-specific factors of immune defense (cytokines, immunoglobulins, and complement components), and the clinical symptoms. Antigen-specific profiles of each type of immune response in relation to the balance between two forms of defence, cell-mediated and humoral are described.