Hypocomplementemia in Reye syndrome: relationship to disease stage, circulating immune complexes, and C3b amplification loop protein synthesis.

Measurement of C1q, C2, C4, C5, C6, factor B, properdin, beta1H, and C3bINA were made in acute sera from 31 patients with Reye syndrome. Abnormalities were found in 18 patients. The magnitude of the complement component depression correlated with disease severity. Sera from patients with stage IV illness had significantly lower complement levels than did sera from patients with state I (P less than 0.001), II (P less than 0.05), and III (P less than 0.05) disease. Circulating immune complex measurements were performed on all 31 acute sera and were present in six (19%). However, from the results of the present study, it would appear that in the majority of the patients circulating immune complexes are not the cause of the lowered levels of, at least, C3 and factor B. Rather, these low levels could be explained as secondary to reductions in the levels of the C3b amplification loop control proteins beta1H and C3bINA.