Laser nephelometric assay of complements C3 & C4 in unselected Nigerian population.

The renewed interest in the routine clinical use of complement assays raises the need to obtain reference values in a denominator population as Nigerians. The present study used laser nephelometry to quantitate complement C3 and C4 proteins and obtained the means as 87.9mg/dl and 46.9mg/dl respectively. When compared with those of Central Europeans there was no statistical difference between the C3 levels of the two populations but C4 was significantly elevated among the Nigerians than the Europeans. This may suggest increased activation of the classical pathway.