American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 23, 1595-1601, Copyright © 1970 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Disturbance of the Jejunal and Colonic Bacterial Flora in Immunoglobulin Deficiencies

¹ From the Departments of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven; the West Haven Veterans Administration Hospital, West Haven; and the Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, Connecticut

Quantitative and qualitative bacteriologic studies were performed for total aerobe, total anaerobe, coliform, streptococcus, lactobacilli, and bacteroides organisms from jejunal aspirates and feces of 12 subjects with serum immunoglobulin deficiency. Clinical symptoms, intestinal absorption studies, gastric analysis and jejunal biopsy specimens, and radiographic findings were correlated with the bacteriologic studies.

Marked abnormalities were noted in the jejunal and fecal flora of some subjects but there was no clear correlation with clinical gastrointestinal symptoms or laboratory studies. Jejunal overgrowth was noted in 85% of the subjects studied. Bacteroides was not recovered from over 50% of the group and this was statistically highly significant when compared with a normal population. It is presumed that these flora abnormalities are related to the immunoglobulin deficiencies.