[Dynamics of the immune response in a familial focus of toxoplasmosis]

Immunoepidemiological investigations were carried out in a family in which a child with congenital toxoplasmosis was born in 1972. The following were determined: total fluorescent antibodies and their G and M fractions and G and M serum immunoglobulins. The results showed: --the existence of a familial focus if infection with T. gondii, the risk of infection in the course of pregnancy and its consequences on the product of conception; --the normal evolution of the following pregnancy in the presence of anti-T. gondii fluorescent antibodies and the birth of a normal child; --value of the indirect immunofluorescence test for the diagnosis of congenital toxoplasmosis and of the longitudinal immunologic investigation; --determination of the antibody M fraction and serum immunoglobulins did not prove as useful as expected; --persistance of fluorescent antibodies in significant titers over a long period in the absence of a clinical symptomatology or with clinical manifestations of another etiology might lead to a false diagnosis of toxoplasmosis -- hence the necessity of a test for differentiating the carrier of specific antibodies from the toxoplasmosis patient.