FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 329:1422-1423 November 4, 1993 Number 19 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Immunoglobulins are essential for health. In the absence of these proteins, life-threatening illnesses often occur, as evidenced by the susceptibility of people with congenital or acquired immunoglobulin deficiencies to infection or neoplasia. On the other hand, a hyperabundance of immunoglobulins can also be harmful, especially when the antibodies are directed against self-antigens (i.e., autoantibodies) or have certain physicochemical or structural properties that render them pathogenic, resulting, for example, in an immune-complex disease or hyperviscosity syndrome. Even more striking is the clinical impact of immunoglobulin overproduction in patients with plasma-cell dyscrasias in which the protein is deposited in vital organs. These . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org Comments and questions? Please contact us. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.