5153 North Ninth Avenue
Pensacola, FL 32504
06/23/2011

At present, most patients receive prophylactic antimicrobial drugs to prevent certain infections. It is recommended that patients also receive the annual influenza vaccine although it is not clear how well patients respond to this vaccine because of their immunocompromised state. The Nemours Children’s Clinic in Pensacola started monitoring patient’s immunoglobulin (i.e., antibody) levels a few years ago and have found many patients to have low levels of immunoglobulins (i.e., hypogammaglobulinemia).

Further, by treating these patients with an intravenous form of immunoglobulin (IVIG), we have anecdotally seen a decrease in the number of infectious complications in our patients. Based on this experience, we have designed a study to prospectively evaluate immunoglobulin levels across multiple Nemours Children’s Clinic sites to determine if hypogammaglobulinemia is a common problem.