Fortnightly Review: Concensus on diagnosis and management of primary antibody deficiencies

#### Summary points Primary antibody deficiency syndromes include congenital and acquired antibody deficiencies but not those secondary to other diseases such as myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, or protein losing enteropathy. Hypogammaglobulinaemia was the diagnosis usually given to patients with low serum immunoglobulin concentrations without an identifiable cause, b t these patients are more accurately described as having primary antibody deficiency. There is a range of primary antibody defects (box),1 though the clinical significance of some subgroups has been recognised only recently.*RF 2-4* Types of primary antibody deficiencies