Humoral Immune Response in Libyan Patients with Chronic and Acute Bacterial Infections

Serum immunoglobulin levels in 34 Libyan patients (age: 45 ± 14 years; sex: 25 males, 9 females) with chronic active pulmonary tuberculosis (CAP-TB) and 25 Libyan patients (age; 41 ± 12 years; sex: 17 males, 8 females) with acute urinary tract infection with Klebsiella species (AUTI-KS) together with 26 health Libyans (CS) (age: 40 ± 20 years; sex: 23 males, 11 females) were studied to evaluate and compare humoral immune response in chronic (CAP-TB) and acute (AUTI-KS) infections. It was observed that mean serum concentration of all the immunoglobulin classes (IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD, IgE) in CAP-TB were significantly higher than CS as well as AUTI-KS (P<0.05). Also, significantly high proportion of patients with CAP-TB had all the classes of immunoglobulin above the normal range. In case of patients with AUTI-KS significantly high proportion had only IgG and IgM levels above the normal range (P<0.05), whereas the distribution for IgA, IgD, and IgE were similar to those of CS (P>0.05). These findings are discussed in comparison with reports from other parts of the world and are taken as evidence to reflect the different nature and extent of humoral immune response in chronic (CAP-TB) and acute (AUTI-KS) infections. It is suggested that quantitative estimation of total serum immunoglobulin in all classes may help to make differential diagnosis of whether a bacterial infection is chronic or acute.