Viral antibodies were measured in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum from 25 patients having acute viral central nervous system (CNS) infections, and from 39 control patients. The results, collected two weeks after the clinical onset, revealed the presence of antibodies in nine of 13 (69%) CSF specimens from patients suffering from encephalitis of myelitis, and in only one of nine (11%) of the CSF samples of those presenting a viral meningitis infection. This difference was statistically significant and suggests that the titration of viral antibodies in the CSF can be helpful in establishing the diagnosis of viral CNS infection. Our data also suggest that localized production of antibodies occurs during the course of acute CNS infections, and that the respiratory syncytial virus can be associated with CNS infections in man.

Serial hepatitis B antigen (HBAg) serum screenings were performed in 98 cadaver kidney transplant recipients: 51 were persistently found HBAg-negative while 47 became HBAg-positive, the majority of them acquiring HBAg postoperatively. In 28 patients, HB antigenemia persisted over 6 months postoperatively. 1- and 2-year graft survival rates were significantly greater in HBAg-positive than in HBAg-negative recipients. This finding suggests that HBAg tolerance is due to the ill-defined processes which determine kidney graft tolerance.

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The serum, cerebrospinal (CSF) and brain of a patient (NAG) affected with multiple sclerosis (MS) were examined for measles antibodies with CF and HI techniques, and the kappa-lambda light chain ratios of all samples available were evaluated, kappa-lambda populations of the matched serum, CSF and brain specimens were all lambda-predominant and in agreement with each other; the light chain distribution f the brain specimens confirmed previous findings [3]. Only the serum immunoglobulins showed significant measles antibody titers, but slightly increased measles antibody titers were also observed in ventricular plaques. The amount of immunoglobulin G (IgG) synthesized per day by the central nervous system (CNS) was estimated. The IgG synthesis in CNS NAG (11.6 mg/day) was above the upper limit of the normal range (3.3 mg/day), but apparently there was no positive correlation between the intracerebral IgG synthesis and specific anti-measles IgG.