Clinical symptoms in adults with selective IgA deficiency: a case-control study.

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Immunology
• Main Authors: Jorgensen, G H, Gardulf, A, Sigurdsson, M I, Sigurdardottir, S Th, Thorsteinsdottir, I, Gudmundsson, S, Hammarström, L, Ludviksson, B R
• Other Authors: Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Verlag 2013
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Autoimmune Diseases; Case-Control Studies; Female; Humans; Hypersensitivity; Iceland; IgA Deficiency; Male; Middle Aged; Questionnaires; Respiratory Function Tests; Respiratory Tract Infections; Risk
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/312350; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-012-9858-x

To access publisher's full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field. Selective IgA deficiency (SIgAD) is the most common primary immunodeficiency in Caucasians with a prevalence of 1/600 and is generally considered a mild disorder. In this study, the clinical status of 32 adults with SIgAD was investigated and compared to 63 age- and gender matched controls, randomly selected from a population database. The SIgAD individuals reported significantly more often contracting various upper and lower respiratory infections, with 8 (25.0 %) having been diagnosed with ≥1 pneumonia in the preceding two years, compared to one (1.6 %) control (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the SIgAD individuals were found to have increased proneness to infections and increased prevalence of allergic diseases and autoimmunity, with a total of 84.4 % being affected by any of these diseases, compared to 47.6 % of the controls (p < 0.01). This study challenges the common statement of SIgAD being a mild form of immunodeficiency. It also highlights the importance of using matched controls in PID clinical research to better detect clinically important manifestations. Landspitali University Hospital Research FundIcelandic Research Fund Karolinska Institutet (KI Fonder), Stockholm Sweden and Division of Research and Development Primary Care County Council of Uppsala, Sweden