A patient who has received injections of immune globulin may show a number of serologic changes due to passive transfer of antibody in the immune globulin.
Features:
(1) The patient has a history of immune globulin therapy during the past 3 months.
(2) The patient has a positive serologic test for an antibody.
(3) The patient was negative for the antibody prior to immune globulin therapy or becomes negative at a point 3 months after the immune globulin therapy.
Examples of serologic tests affected:
(1) hepatitis B or C
(2) other infectious diseases
(3) rheumatoid factor
Considering the dilution that occurs in preparation of large batches of immune globulin, possible explanations include:
(1) a small number of donors with very high antibody titers
(2) a high prevalence of exposure in the donor population
If a sample of the immune globulin is available, then it can be tested for the antibody in question.
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