Measurement of chemiluminescence in freshly drawn human blood. II. Clinical application of zymosan-induced chemiluminescence.

The aim of the present study was to investigate chemiluminescence (CL) of stimulated peripheral phagocytic cells (PC, i.e. granulocytes and monocytes) in patients with malignant disease at various stages. As a first step the zymosan-induced and luminol-amplified CL was determined in diluted whole blood samples from healthy volunteers. A characteristic daytime dependence of the CL activity was observed in six volunteers which had to be taken into account for blood sampling. The detectable CL was demonstrated to depend on the number of erythrocytes in the assay, but correction for this is not necessary for clinical investigation. The specific CL activity (activity related to 10(3) PC, was significantly but identically increased both in 1) patients with acute inflammatory disease and 2) in patients with carcinoma. The total CL activity (activity/microliter whole blood), however, was significantly increased in patients with acute inflammation as compared to the tumour group. This greatly reflects the leucocytosis of patients with acute inflammation. In a small number of patients with benign and malignant disease the CL of PC was measured both pre- and postoperatively. Operations in benign disease and palliative operations in malignancy did not influence the CL activity. In contrast, CL activity returned to normal after clinical cure by radical tumour resection.