Anti-IgG agglutinins in idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn.

As we were interested in the possibility that there might be an immune reaction occurring between mothers and their infants which could account for the low IgG concentrations observed, it was decided to examine the sera of these infants for antibodies against their mothers' IgG.Materials and Methods Venous blood was taken at birth from the umbilical Received May 20, 1969.cord of 35 healthy, premature infants and of 28 infants who, within a few hours of birth, developed signs of respiratory distress, for which no obvious cause could be found.The clinical diagnosis of IRDS was made in infants manifesting any of the signs of respiratory distress-tachypnoea, cyanosis in room air, laboured respiration with rib recession, expiratory grunting.The diagnosis was confirmed for 11 of the infants by the characteristic chest x-ray picture: viz.'ground glass' opacity of the lung fields with an air bronchogram.Blood gas and acid-base data were collected on 10 of the 11 infants in this group (Table I), and these indicate