Screening of healthy school children aged 6–17 years old for immunoglobulin A deficiency in eastern Turkey: authors’ reply

Abstract

Eur Jclin Invest 2004; 34(10): 717Sir, Ertekin et al . [1] report the interesting observation that in 960 children (546 boys and 414 girls; mean age 12 ± 3·6 years) living in the city of Erzurum in the east of Turkey not a single case of serum immunoglobulin A (SIgA) deficiency was diagnosed. From these data a prevalence of 0 (95% confidence interval: 0 -0·4%) can be calculated. Of note, the measurements of SIgA have been performed during winter, which is particularly cold and long in that part of Turkey. From our recent findings [2] a lower prevalence of SIgA deficiency can be expected during winter. We think that re-testing the 960 children studied by Ertekin et al . during summer is worthwhile and may provide new and important insights into the issue of seasonal variability of SIgA levels. References1 Ertekin V, Selimo g lu MA, Karda * F, Akçay F. Screening of healthy school children aged 6-17 years old for immunoglobulin a deficiency in eastern Turkey. Eur J Clin Invest 2004; 34 :716. 2 Weber-Mzell D, Kotanko P, Hauer AC, Goriup U, Haas J, Lanner N et al. Gender, age and seasonal effects on IgA deficiency: a study of 7293 Caucasians. Eur J Clin Invest 2004; 34 :224 -8.