Immune responsiveness of patients with autoimmune diseases and immunodeficiency

Assessment of immune reactivity of patients with disorders of immunopathological origin requires a well-equipped clinical laboratory. The complex mechanism of immune reactions cannot be studied by simple techniques, although the most sophisticated methods do not often prove more reliable than simpler ones. While humoral immune reactivity can be measured by determining serum immunoglobulin levels, the assessment of cellular reactivity requires more complex methods; for this purpose lymphocyte marker studies, mitogen induced blast transformation, LIF production, and skin reactivity proved to be the methods of choice.