Primary Antibody Deficiencies
Primary antibody deficiencies (PADs) are the most common primary (i.e. genetic) immunodeficiencies representing over 60% of the total primary immunodeficiency cases. PADs represent a wide spectrum of disorders, from complete absence of immunoglobulins to antigen-specific defects with normal quantitative levels. Generally, the more sever the deficit in antibody production, the earlier the disease presents in life. In this lecture we will mainly focus on agammaglobulinemia and hyper-IgM syndrome that present in childhood, and common variable immunodeficiency that can be diagnosed from childhood to late in life. We will discuss the difficulty of differential diagnosis, and how novel molecular technologies allowing testing for multiple genes simultanously can help with the diganosis.
