Abstract
In order to know the status of adenovirus infections in Japan, both in-patients and outpatients from April, 1957 to August, 1962 at the Sagamihara National Hospital, Sagamihara City, one of the satellite cities of Tokyo, were studied by means of complement fixation (CF) test.
1) The distribution of adenovirus CF antibody titer according to ages was studied on 571 patients without acute respiratory infection. Positive rate was low at the youngest group, 0-8 years, increased in proporttn to age, reached a plateau at the group of 17-20 years, maintained the plateau thereafter, and then decreased in much older age groups. The increase of the positive rate of CF titer in adult groups is due to frequent opportunities of being infected with adenovirus, indicating the widespreaed prevalence of adenovirus in the area.
2) The incidence of CF antibody titer of in-patients was compared with that out-patients, CF antibody titer 8 of the in-patients was 27.1%, while that of the out-patients was 19.0%, that is, higher titers were more frequent among the in-patients. Moreover the distribution of CF antibody showed that the longer the patients stayed at the hospital, the higher the incidence of positives became, indicating a fact that adenovirus infections are liable to occur among people in a hospital.
3) A fourpfold or greater increase and/or decrease in CF antibody titer was demonstrated in 36 cases out of 218 cases (16.3%) with acute respiratory disease without pneumonia and 32 cases out of 195 cases (16.3%) with primary atypical pneumonia which were given serum test more than twice.
The cases were found throughout the year, though we had more cases in spring and summer than in other seasons.
Clinical pictures of the disease were as the following:
The beginning symptoms were chill and high temperature which took place suddenly and severely. The high temperature came down rather soon, in 4.8 days on an average. Many of the cases had a headache and languor, 1 case developed rash, 3 cases diarrhoea and 3 cases swollen cervical lymph node, As a local symptom, conjunctival hyperemia as well as acute respiratory symptoms appeared on 19% of the acute respiratory disease group and on 12% of the primary atypical pneumonia group. Roentgenograms revealed densities mostly at the lower area of the right lung. These densities disappeared in 20 days on an average.
4) CF antibody titer had a tendency to increase about the end of the 1st week up to the maximum in the 2nd-3rd week, and then slowly decreased.
5) We had no special treatment, and chemotherapy was generally ineffective. There were no deaths.
