Correlation of immune defects in hemophilia with HTLV-III antibody titers.

Of 170 hemophilia patients, 22% had high-titer, 29% had low-titer, and 49% had no antibodies against HTLV-III. The strength of HTLV-III antibodies was correlated significantly with a decreased OKT4/T8 ratio (p less than 0.0005), decreased in vitro response to pokeweed mitogen (p less than 0.025), and elevated serum neopterin (p less than 0.05) and serum IgG (p less than 0.0005). The fraction of patients with abnormal immunological findings was consistently greater among patients with high-titer than among patients with low-titer HTLV-III antibodies. Testing these immunological parameters may be useful for monitoring the breakdown of immune functions leading to AIDS.