Abstract
Neopterin has been recently known as one of the new makers for activated cell-mediated immunity. We studied serum neopterin levels in 114 controls and 83 patients in childfood. Neopterin levels of serum were measured with radioimmunoassay. The group under one year age showed significantly higher serum neopterin levels than the group from the elder. Significantly higher serum neopterin levels were detected in sera of patients with acute bacterial infection, acute viral infection, subacute necrotizing lymphadenitis and active SLE. Particularly in subacute necrotizing lymphadenitis cases and SLE cases, neopterin represented a sensitive marker for the active stage. It seemed that measurement of serum neopterin levels are useful as indicators of these disease states.
