Antihyaluronidase Studies of Sera from Patients with Rheumatic Fever, Streptococcal Infections, and Miscellaneous Non-streptococcal Diseases.

In the previous paper the technical aspects of the mucin-clot prevention test which was standardized by McClean (1) have been described. Friou and Wenner (2) using the mucin-clot prevention test have demonstrated the clinical significance of an inhibitory substance in human serum capable of neutralizing an enzyme elaborated by a strain of hemolytic streptococcus. The amount of inhibitory substance was shown by them to be greater in the sera of patients with rheumatic fever than in patients early in the course of uncomplicated hemolytic streptococcal infections or normal individuals. A brief historical background of the work preceding that of Friou and Wenner has been presented in the previous paper. The purpose of this paper is to report the clinical application of the muein-clot prevention test in the determination of the antihyaluronidase titre of sera of patients with rheumatic fever, hemolytic streptococcal infections, miscellaneous other diseases, and normal individuals.