Primary Immunodeficiency ✅ Flashcards
How serious are primary immunodeficiency disorders?
Range from common minor and often asymptomatic disorders to severe, rare disorders
Give 2 examples of minor immunodeficiency disorders
- Mannan-binding lectin deficiency
- Selective IgA deficiency
What is the incidence of mannan-binding lectin deficiency?
1 in 20
What is the incidence of selective IgA deficiency?
1 in 500
Give 2 examples of severe primary immunodeficiency disorders
- Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)
- Chronic granulomatous disease
What is the incidence of SCID?
1 in 35,000
What is the incidence of chronic granulomatous disease?
1 in 200,000
What is the incidence of primary immunodeficiency disorders (PID) severe enough to require haematopoietic stem cell transplantation?
1 in 30,000-50,000
What can result from a primary immunodeficiency?
- Increased susceptibility to infection
- Autoimmunity
- Immunodysregulation
- Malignancy
What can primary immune deficiency be classified on the basis of?
- Defects in innate or adaptive immunity
- Clinical presentation
- Age of onset
- Spectrum of encountered pathogens
What organisms are patients with antibody deficiency more susceptible to?
- Bacterial infection
- Enteroviruses
- Giardia lamblia
What bacterial infections are patients with antibody deficiencies more susceptible to?
- Streptococcus pneumoniae
- Haemophilus influenza
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Mycoplasma
Give 4 antibody deficiencies
- X-linked agammaglobulinaemia
- Combined variable immunodeficiency
- IgA deficiency
- Ataxia telangiectasia
What is X-linked agammaglobulinaemia also known as?
Bruton’s disease
What is the pathological process in X-linked agammaglobulinaemia?
B cell development is blocked
When does X-linked agammaglobulinaemia typically present?
6 months - 5 years
How does X-linked agammaglobulinaemia present?
Recurrent bacterial infection
What is found on laboratory testing in X-linked agammaglobulinaemia?
- Low IgG, IgM, and IgA
- Absent B cells
- Absent isohaemagglutinins
- BTK gene mutation
What is the pathological process in combined variable immunodeficiency (CVID)?
Lack of IgG antibody production
When does CVID typically present?
2nd-4th decade of life
How does CVID present?
Recurrent bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infection
Other than infections, what may be associated with CVID?
Increased risk of autoimmune disease and malignancy
What is found on labatory testing in CVID?
- Reduced IgG
- Occasionally reduced IgM/IgA
- Occasionally low/dysfunctional T or B cells
- Abnormal patterns of B cell phenotype
- Decreased vaccine responses
What abnormal pattern of B cell phenotype may be found in CVID?
Absence of switched memory B cells
In what % of CVID patients is a genetic defect identified?
10%
When does IgA deficiency present?
> 4 years
How does IgA deficiency present?
Recurrent upper respiratory tract infections
Other than infection, what may IgA deficiency be associated with?
Increased frequency of allergies and autoimmunity
Can IgA deficiency be asymptomatic?
Yes
What is found on laboratory testing in IgA deficiency?
- IgA absent
- Normal IgM and IgG
- Normal vaccine responses
When does ataxia telangiectasia present?
2nd year of life
How does ataxia telangiectasia present?
Recurrent respiratory infection
Other than infections, what is ataxia telangiectasia associated with?
- Ocular or facial telangiectasia
- Progressive cerebellar ataxia
- Increased risk of leukaemia and lymphoma
What is found on laboratory testing in ataxia telangiectasia?
- Decreased IgA
- Increased radiation-induced chromosomal breakage in cultured cells
- Increased alpha-fetoprotein
- Mutations in ATM gene
What kind of infections do combined immunodeficiencies increase in the susceptibility to?
- Bacteria
- Viruses
- Fungi
What bacteria do combined immunodeficiencies increase the susceptibility to?
- Streptococcus pneumoniae
- Haemophilus influenzae
- Gram negative Enterobacteriae
- Intracellular pathogens
What intracellular bacteria to combined immunodeficiencies increase susceptibility to?
- Salmonella
- Mycobacteria
- Cryptosporidium
- Pneumocystis
Give 5 viruses that patients with combined immunodeficiencies are more susceptible to?
- Parainfluenza
- RSV
- Rotavirus
- CMV
- EBV
What fungi do combined immunodeficiency disorders increase susceptibility to?
Candida species
Give 6 causes of combined immunodeficiency
- Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)
- Omenn SCID
- DiGeorge syndrome
- Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome
- X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome
- X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome
What is the problem in SCID?
The development of lymphocytes is blocked by genetic defects
When does SCID present?
In the first 6 months of life
How does SCID present?
- Faltering growth
- Persistent diarrhoea
- Recurrent mucocutaneous candidiasis
- Severe pneumonitis
What form of pneumonitis is seen in SCID?
Viral or PJP
What can happen if SCID is not recognised and managed early?
It is commonly fatal
What is found on investigation in SCID?
- Lymphopenia
- Hypogammaglobulinaemia
- Abnormal lymphocyte subsets
- Various genetic mutations
What does the lymphocyte subset seen in SCID depend on?
The type of SCID
What abnormalities may be seen in the lymphocyte subset in SCID?
Absent T-cells +/- B +/- NK cells
What genes may be mutated in SCID?
- GAMMA C
- JAK 3
- RAG1
- RAG2
- IL7-RA
- ADA
- MHC class II
What is Omenn SCID?
SCID complicated by expansion of a few clones of T cells
What molecular type of SCID can develop in Omenn SCID?
Any molecular type
How does Omenn SCID present?
- Severe inflammation of skin (generalised erythroderma) and gut
- Lymphadenopathy
- Hepatosplenomegaly
What is found on laboratory investigation in Omenn SCID?
- T cells present but oligoclonal
- B/NK present or absent depending on SCID type
- Proliferation of T cells usually impaired
How does DiGeorge syndrome cause immune deficiency?
Absent/hypoplastic thymus causes T-cell deficiency
How severe is the immune deficiency in DiGeorge syndrome?
Variable, from SCID-like (complete DiGeorge) to normal (via a partial deficiency)
When does immunodeficiency caused by DiGeorge syndrome present?
Any time from neonatal period
How does immune deficiency caused by DiGeorge syndrome present?
Viral and fungal infections 1
What are the other features of DiGeorge syndrome?
- Conotruncal cardiac defect
- Hypocalcaemia
- Facial dysmorphic features
What are the features of the hypocalcaemia seen in DiGeorge syndrome?
Lasts >3 weeks and requires therapy
What is found on laboratory investigation in immune deficiency caused by DiGeorge syndrome?
- Lymphopenia
- Lymphocyte subsets and proliferation variable
- Genetic defects
What genetic defects are associated with DiGeorge syndrome?
- Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion
- CHARGE syndrome
When does Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome present?
Early in infancy
How does Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome present?
- Bleeding/bruising
- Recurrent respiratory infections
- HSV and EBV infections
What later clinical features are associated with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome?
- Bloody diarrhoea
- Eczema in early infancy
- Autoimmune manifestations
- Malignancy