Streptococcal antibodies in patients with burn injuries.

Serum samples from 14 patients whose burns had become infected with streptococci of groups A (11 patients), C (one patient) or G (two patients), and from 19 burned patients without bacteriological evidence of streptococcal infection were examined for anti-streptococcal antibodies. Tests were made for anti-streptolysin O (ASO), anti-hyaluronidase (AH), anti-deoxyribonuclease B (anti-DNAase B) and antibody against M-associated protein (MAP). Sera from the patients with streptococcal infections were also examined, when this was practicable, for 'bactericidal' (anti-M) antibody and for antibody against the opacity factor (OF) of the infecting serotype. In patients infected with group A streptococci, the ASO response was generally poor, except in patients infected with strains of type T12/M12, and the AH response was rather similar, but most of the patients gave a rapid and vigorous anti-DNAase B response, except when the burn was small or colonization occurred very late. Antibody to the M and MAP antigens, and to OF (when the infecting strain formed this), was weak and transient, or absent, except in three of four patients infected with streptococci of type T12/M12.