Immunosuppression

The symptoms vary with the specific disorder.

Your doctor might think you have an immunodeficiency disorder if you have:

• Persistent, recurrent infections
• Severe infection by microorganisms that do not usually cause severe infection

Other signs include:

• Poor response to treatment for infections
• Delayed or incomplete recovery from illness
• Certain types of cancers (such as Kaposi's sarcoma or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma)
• Certain infections (including some forms of pneumonia or recurrent yeast infections)

Tests used to help diagnose an immunodeficiency disorder may include:

• Complement levels in the blood, or other tests to measure substances released by the immune system
• Immunoglobulin levels in the blood
• Protein electrophoresis (blood or urine)
• T (thymus derived) lymphocyte count
• White blood cell count

Images

Immune response

Antibodies

Phagocytosis

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Immunodeficiency disorders Overview

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Immunodeficiency disorders Treatment

Review Date: 05/02/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; Stuart I. Henochowicz, MD, FACP, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, Georgetown University Medical School. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)