SPECIFIC CARDIAC ANTIBODIES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE,

Different immunological techniques, notably passive hemagglutination and immunofluorescence, help to find specific antibodies of the cardiac tissue in a large proportion of the sera of R.A.A., with a post commissurotomy syndrome or a myocardium infarction. Immune appearing gamma globulins are fixed on the myocardium of these patients. The experimental obtaining of cardiac antibodies and lesions by immunization with homologous or heterologous tissue associated with various adjuvants proves a specific antigenicity of the myocardium. In Bouillards disease, the demonstration of a cross reaction between a myocardiac antigen and a protidic wall antigen of certain group A hemolytic streptococci seems to explain the succession of the streptococcal infection in the rheumatic disease. Many clinical, histological and immunological arguments suggest the role of auto-immunity in the post commissurotomy, Dresslers syndrome and some myocarditis, without one formal proof yet being found. Author