[Comparative study of quantitative changes in serum proteins in human pathology (author's transl)]

Five proteins (albumin, orosomucoid, IgG, IgM and IgA) were assayed by simple radial immunodiffusion method in the sera of 345 healthy subjects and 5 000 patients suffering from some 200 different diseases. The results were analyzed by computer, and from concomitant changes in individual protein levels it was possible to divide the subjects into eleven groups, each group having a distinctive protein profile. These profiles are characteristic of either a disease (e.g. group VI for virus hepatitis, group VII for trypanosomiasis) or of a physiopathological process (e.g. group II for inflammation, group V for liver damage, group VIII for hypogammaglobulinaemia due to anabolic deficiency and group IX for the same condition due to passage of serum proteins into the extravascular compartment), or they have a prognostic value (e.g. group I).