Microbiology & Immunology - Theses
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ItemStudies in the etiology of rheumatic fever( 1952)The aim of the present study has been prompted by an endeavour to find on the basis of the allergic theory, the sensitizing substance or substances which may be responsible for the rheumatic process. This search for the sensitizing antigen involved two processes. Firstly, the preparation of a variety of substances from sources, which on the basis of the allergic theory were believed to have etiological significance and secondly, the utilization of a suitable method to demonstrate that an antigen-antibody reaction does occur. The successful finding of the sensitizing agent would establish the validity of the allergic theory. The failure to find it, however, would be no proof against it, though it may be incompatible with some of the hypotheses that have been postulated in an attempt to specify the mechanism of the allergic process eg. the hypothesis of auto-antibodies. The complexity of the problem which is testified by the still obscure nature of the disease after 50 years of research necessitated a variety of approaches, at times highly empirical, in the present study. Some of these have been designed to clarify doubtful results of previous investigations. Others have never been tried before. Indeed, to find some original approach to the problem of rheumatic fever, that has escaped the notice of previous investigators is a task of its own. Not less arduous is the task of studying the literature which has accumulated on the subject during the last fifty years. Waksman (1949), in a paper dealing with the etiology of rheumatic fever, lists over 700 references, at the end of which, he refers to other authors for an “exhaustive review” of the subject. (From Introduction)