A STUDY OF THE DELAYED-HYPERSENSITIVITY RESPONSE IN HEALTHY PEOPLE INSPAIN - SPANISH NATIONAL TABLES

With a view to creating national tables of the delayed hypersensitivit y response, a total of 1476 healthy persons were studied at eight diff erent locations in Spain. For the measurement of delayed cellular immu nity response, Multitest IMC was used. Of those examined, 0.7% were an ergic, 21.3 were relatively anergic, and 73 were immunocompetent. Of t he 766 men, 28 were relatively anergic and 3 were anergic, whereas of the 710 women, 14 were relatively anergic (p < .001) and 8% were anerg ic (p < .001). The highest incidence of anergy was found in women of o ver 70 years (p < .001). Tuberculin was the antigen with the most posi tive responses, 77%, followed by Candida with 58%. Trichophyton and Pr oteus mirabilis were the antigens least recognized by the Spaniards st udied. Major geographical variations were observed, both in the overal l index for the delayed hypersensitivity response and in the response to different antigens. Catalonia revealed the highest level of anergy and the Valencia region, the lowest.