[Dynamics of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and natural killer cells in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome].
OBJECTIVE
To study the dynamics of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).


METHODS
The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells in 602 serial samples from 240 patients with SARS were counted, using flow cytometry, and compared with that of normal population.


RESULTS
The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells in SARS patients were significantly lower than that of the normal population (P < 0.001) and were much lower in SARS patients with severe or extremely severe types, as compared with that of moderate or mild type cases (P < 0.001). The amount of B lymphocytes in recovery SARS patients increased at the 2nd week after onset, and gradually becoming normal at the 5th week of the disease onset. The number of NK cells was in the low level at onset, and keep decreasing at the 2nd week. However, it was increasing with the recovery of the disease, but did not reach to normal level at the 5th week after onset.


CONCLUSIONS
The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells were associated with the severity of the disease, and detection of these two kinds of cells was useful for predicting the prognosis of SARS.
Dong
Qing-Ming
QM
Beijing Ditan Hospital, Beijing 100011, China.
He
Zhong-Ping
ZP
Zhuang
Hui
H
Song
Shu-Jing
SJ
Dai
Wang-Su
WS
Zhang
Si-Ping
SP
Chen
Zhi-Hai
ZH
Sun
Jing-Yuan
JY
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016175:B-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index