[Circulating immune complexes and the complement level in children with acute pneumonia]

It has been shown that study of immunopathological component in acute pneumonias is of value. Such an approach has demonstrated that in the course of the disease there form immune complexes (IC), which absorb complement and are of importance for the disease pathogenesis, and tissue immune complexes which do not absorb complement. Formation of anticomplement IC in acute pneumonias is in a good agreement with a reduction in blood serum complement level with a concurrent change in these indicators in the lungs. The demonstration of anticomplement IC in patients with acute pneumonia has a prognostic value. The stay at hospital of the patients who demonstrated IC at the very beginning of the disease was 2.5 times longer because of the lack of the process normalization.