Stability of individual antimycobacterial precipitation patterns during treatment for lepromatous leprosy.

Sixty serum specimens obtained from 16 lepromatous patients at intervals during the first year of DDS treatment were studied in crossed immunoelectrophoresis against an M. leprae sonicate for possible variations of specificities and titers of antimycobacterial antibodies. All sera tested showed antibody activity against M. leprae, the number of precipitation lines produced varying between two and seven. In individual patients the numbers and positions of the precipitation lines remained remarkably constant throughout the period of study.