[Epidemiologic aspects of viral hepatitis at a Parisian university hospital. Apropos of 130 cases].

One hundred and thirty adults with viral hepatitis were hospitalized in the Department of Hepatology-Gastroenterology at the Hospital Salpètrière between October 1984 and October 1986. Eighty had acute hepatitis and 50 suffered from chronic hepatitis. Among the former, 15 had hepatitis A, 40 had hepatitis B and/or delta and 25 had non A-non B hepatitis.

[Immune status in infantile autism. Correlation between the immune status, autistic symptoms and levels of serotonin].

In sixteen autistic children high values of IgG and a high level of lymphocyte stimulation with PHA were observed. Principal component analysis showed: 1) a significant correlation between basic lymphocyte mitogenic activity and the clinical symptoms opposition and hyperactivity, 2) a significant correlation between high Ig levels, high PHA stimulation responses and the main autistic symptoms (withdrawal, inaffectivity, hypoactivity, mannerism, stereotypy and negatively echolalia), 3) a significant correlation with serotonin uptake by platelets and high immunological responses. Such correlations are strongly in favor of an immunologic component in autistic disease.

Comparison of an ELISA technique with quantal micro-neutralization test for serotyping of HSV-1 or HSV-2-infected patients.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using semi-purified herpes simplex antigens extracted from cell nuclei was employed for typing of 32 sera collected from patients infected with HSV-1 or HSV-2. The results were in agreement with those obtained by the quantal micro-neutralization test. Moreover, sera with antibodies which could not be detected by micro-neutralization test could be typed by the ELISA technique according to the HSV isolates.