[Immunological changes in chronic osteomyelitis]

We have studied several aspects of cellular and humoral immunity in 19 patients with chronic osteomyelitis (CO) compared with 11 healthy controls of similar characteristics. Patients with CO showed significantly higher values of GSR, reactive protein C (RPC), IgG and lymphocytes CD3+ and lower values of the CD4+/CD3+ ratio, as well as an hypoergic response to 7 antigens in the different cutaneous hypersensibility tests, compared with healthy controls. The rate of "in vitro" blastic stimulation by different lectins was significantly lower in the group of patients, compared with controls. These changes in the cellular immunity are not correlated with the extent, chronicity and prognosis of the disease, although we did not performed sequential studies of the immunitary condition. None of these immunological markers seem to be a better predictor of the bone infectious activity than the traditional GSR or RPC.