Der Hautarzt; Zeitschrift für Dermatologie, Venerologie, und verwandte Gebiete
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Eight of 400 (2%) unselected dermatological patients showed an IgA deficiency in their serum. Two had a complete and four an isolated deficiency of serum IgA. In three patients the IgA deficiency was combined with a deficiency of another immunoglobulin (antibody deficiency syndrome), and twice with a cellular immunodeficiency. ⋯ Most patients with IgA deficiency had recurrent infections of the skin and mucous membranes, or the dermatoses were caused secondarily by an inflammatory process of the latter. In contrast to the deficiency of serum IgA the concentration of secretory IgA in the saliva was normal. The immunotherapy of serum IgA deficiency depended on the existence or absence of associated immunological disorders: in case of isolated IgA deficiency substitution with enriched IgA, in antibody deficiency syndrome with gamma globulin and in combined humoral and cellular immune deficiency with additional therapy with transfer factor.