The effect of serial intravenous immunoglobulin infusion on type-specific anti-pneumococcal antibodies in children.

The effect of a series of five immunoglobulin G infusions--at 3-4 week interval--on serum IgG antibody concentrations against some pneumococcal types commonly associated with acute otitis media (AOM) was studied in 11 children, 1-4 years old, suffering from recurrent AOM. Increase of specific IgG antibody concentrations was observed when the initial concentrations were low. However, once higher antibody concentrations had been achieved as a result of the treatment, subsequent infusions resulted in a decrease of the antibodies. In two children with initially high specific antibody concentrations, antibodies successively decreased in response to repeated immunoglobulin infusions.