Common variable immunodeficiency and idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia: two different conditions within the same disease spectrum.

  • jul 2014
  • Esther de Vries
  • 1425
Esther de Vries
Publicaties - immunologie

ARTIKEL:

Driessen GJ, Dalm VA, van Hagen PM, Grashoff HA, Hartwig NG, van Rossum A, Warris A, de Vries E, Barendregt BH, Pico I, Posthumus S, van Zelm MC, van Dongen JJ, van der Burg M. Common variable immunodeficiency and idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia: two different conditions within the same disease spectrum. Haematologica. 2013 Oct;98(10):1617-23. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2013.085076. Epub 2013 Jun 10. PubMed PMID: 23753020; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3789468.Impact factor 5.935. Rank filter Hematology 9.

ABSTRACT:

Patients with hypogammaglobulinemia who do not fulfill all the classical diagnostic criteria for common variable immunodeficiency (reduction of two immunoglobulin isotypes and a reduced response to vaccination) constitute a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma, because information concerning the clinical and immunological characteristics of these patients with idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia is not available. In 44 common variable immunodeficiency and 21 idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia patients we determined the clinical phenotypes and performed flow cytometric immunophenotyping to assess the pathophysiological B-cell patterns and memory B-cell subset counts. Age-matched B-cell subset reference values of 130 healthy donors were generated. Severe pneumonia and bronchiectasis occurred at similar frequencies in idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia and common variable immunodeficiency. Although IgG levels were only moderately reduced compared to common variable immunodeficiency, 12 of 21 idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia patients required immunoglobulin replacement. Non-infectious disease-related clinical phenotypes (autoimmune cytopenia, polyclonal lymphocytic proliferation and persistent unexplained enteropathy) were exclusively observed in common variable immunodeficiency and were associated with early peripheral B-cell maturation defects or B-cell survival defects. T-cell dependent memory B-cell formation was more severely affected in common variable immunodeficiency. Furthermore, 14 of 21 idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia patients showed normal peripheral B-cell subset counts, suggestive for a plasma cell defect. In conclusion, idiopathic primary hypogammaglobulinemia patients who do not fulfill all diagnostic criteria of common variable immunodeficiency have moderately decreased immunoglobulin levels and often a normal peripheral B-cell subset distribution, but still suffer from serious infectious complications.