[Determinations of immunoglobulin from the blood of the umbilical vein after pathological course of pregnancy and in foetal growth retardation (author's transl)].

Serum-IgM and serum-IgA concentrations of 561 unselected samples of umbilical cord were determined by the radial immunodiffusion method (Mancini's technique). The mean IgM value of all blood samples was 13.8 mg%. In 9.9% of all cases only we found measurable IgA values, the average IgA concentration being 4.5 mg%. Elevated IgM values (greater than 30 mg%) - pointing to an intrauterine infection - were found to be more frequent (12.1%) in foetal of growth retardation than with newborn of normal body weight, where the incidence of increased IgM values was 5.5% of the examined cases only (however, without a statistically significant difference). In preceding infections during pregnancy, elevated IgM values (greater than 30 mg%) were also found more frequently than in cases without infections (11.8% vs. 5.7%, respectively). Basing on these results, we can suspect that intrauterine infection is one of the possible causes of foetal growth retardation, but not one of the main ones.