Agammaglobulinemia

Although a diminution of serum gamma globulin or even its total absence electrophoretically not infrequently follows an infection in early childhood, it is much less common in adults. A persistent diminution or absence of serum gamma globulin as the cause of multiple infections is a concept that was introduced by Bruton 1 in 1952. The syndrome in adults seems to be very rare. Moncke, 2 using paper electrophoresis, found only one case of complete agammaglobulinemia, in a male aged 16, among 6,000 adults and adolescents above the age of 15. Because of the rarity of the condition, the following case in an adult is reported. A 53-year-old female was admitted to the Lenox Hill Hospital on Oct. 28, 1954, with a pneumonitis of both lower lobes. This was her ninth hospital admission. The patient had been well until January, 1949, when she was operated upon for internal hemorrhoids and a