The Latex-fixation Test in Patients with Liver Disease

Abstract

IN RECENT YEARS it has been demonstrated that macroglobulins exist in the sera of most patients with rheumatoid arthritis. One technique for demonstrating this de-pends on the ability of these macroglobu-lins to agglutinate 7S gamma globulin. The latex-fixation test is an application of this process. Using this test, several investigators have reported agglutinating factors in the sera of patients with diseases other than rheumatoid arthritis, such as sarcoidosis, syphilis, pulmonary fibrosis, acute viral illnesses, and liver disease (1-9). A study of the latex-fixation reaction in the sera of 165 patients with various dis-turbances of hepatic function and mor-phology is presented herein. These patients have been studied clinically, and in many instances biopsies or post-mortem examina-tions helped identify more specifically the nature of the hepatic disorder. This in-vestigation reveals a high incidence of posi-tive latex-fixation tests in the sera of these patients. A positive latex test appears to relate to the degree of inflammatory activ-ity as measured by the presence of fever, elevated white blood cell count, and tests of hepatic dysfunction. The data also re-Received September 4, 1962; accepted for publi-