A new familial defect in neutrophil bactericidal activity.

A 4-year-old boy with recurrent infections and his clinically healthy father showed a severe, isolated defect in bactericidal activity of peripheral neutrophil leukocytes (the mother and the only sister were normal). Lymph nodes, spleen and liver of the child presented a massive infiltration by macrophages. Such infiltration and the segmentary albinism of the hair resemble traits of the Chediak-Higashi syndrome, but some of the most relevant traits of this syndrome are absent, since all other neutrophil functions were normal in our patient.