THE COEXISTENCE OF BRUCELLA INFECTION AND HODGKIN'S DISEASE: A CLINICAL, BACTERIOLOGIC AND IMMUNOLOGIC STUDY

The isolation of Brucella melitensis from cultures of lymph nodes from patients having Hodgkin's disease opened an interesting field of investigation. 1 Subsequently fourteen consecutive cases of Hodgkin's disease have been studied carefully for evidence of Brucella infection. The clinical, bacteriologic and immunologic observations in seven cases in this series are presented in detail and in the remainder are summarized briefly. Cultures have been taken of a part of every excised lymph node 2 and the remaining part has been prepared for pathologic study. In every case the clinical diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease has been confirmed by histologic section of the lymph nodes, taken for biopsy, and the existence of Brucella infection has been demonstrated by the isolation of the organisms from either the blood or the lymph nodes or both. The agglutininabsorption tests and the bacteriostatic reactions of dyes have been used to determine the species of Brucella. The