Studies on complement of sera with liver diseases

Abstract

In measuring serum complement level of patients with liver diseases, higher levels than normal were observed in acute hepatitis, in which the levels decreased in a few week after onset. On the other hand, lower levels of complement were observed in both chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, in which change of complement level was less.
Complement components of C3 and C4 decreased in progress of the disease and these amoumts correlated with total complement levels.
High levels of Clq were observed in liver cirrhosis and its amounts did not correlated with degree of liver damage.
There was no correlation between serum immunoglobulin levels and serum complement levels observed.
A phenomenon of dissociation of complement level between serum and plasma was observed in 7 cases of liver cirrhosis, 6 cases of chronic hepatitis and one case of acute hepatitis.
Complement levels of these 14 cases were lower than that of other cases without dissociation. Among them, 5 cases showed the dissociation all through the period observed, whereas other 9 cases showed wide range of change in complement level and showed no dissociation at their higher levels of complement.
No paticular histological findings nor disfunction except some abnormalities in serological findings were observed.