PEDIATRICS Vol. 47 No. 5 May 1971, pp. 801-806
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IMMUNODEFICIENCY AND IMMUNOBIOLOGY

Ralph J. Wedgwood M.D.1

1 Department of Pediatrics University of Washington School of Medicine Seattle, Washington 98105

Almost 20 years ago in this journal, Bruton1 described a young boy afflicted with recurrent severe infections, who lacked gamma globulin. His description identified a new disease and heralded a new era in immunobiology. "Agammaglobulinemia," the term he coined, described a condition of immunodeficiency in a manner analogous to the use of the term "anemia" in the description of abnormalities in erythrocytes. The delineation and treatment of immunologic defects require a conceptual framework for the understanding of immune responses in man, just as the specific diagnosis and therapy of anemia require knowledge of iron metabolism, hemoglobin synthesis, and erythrocyte production.