Arnold G. Wedum

Laboratory Design for Study of Infectious Disease

Abstract : Some fundamental criteria and typical layout sketches are presented to assist those interested in designing new infectious-disease laboratories or in the conversion of existing facilities. Typical safety equipment desirable in these laboratories is described. The basic concepts presented, and the equipment recommended, have been proved in actual practice and found to be of value in preventing laboratory infections.

Serum precipitation reaction in rheumatic fever and in other conditions.

Summary 1. When the serum of a patient in the early acute stage of rheumatic fever was mixed and incubated with a convalescent serum taken at an appropriate time from himself or another rheumatic patient, a precipitate formed. 2. The “phase substances” causing this reaction were present, but less frequently, in atypical pneumonia, nasopharyngitis, several other diseases, and rarely, in apparently normal blood donors. 3. Because cross-reactions occurred between serums from patients with different diseases, it is difficult to ascribe any etiological significance to the findings. 4. This reaction may be responsible for the occasional unfavorable response to blood or plasma transfusion of patients with rheumatic fever. 5. It is not clear whether this phenomenon is a manifestation of serum lability or of the formation of an auto-antigen-antibody system.