immunology allergic disorders
Approach to the Patient With Suspected Immunodeficiency
Manifestations of immunodeficiency
Immunodeficiency typically manifests as recurrent infections. However, more likely causes of recurrent infections in children are repeated exposures to infection at day care or school (infants and children may normally have up to 10 respiratory infections/year), and more likely causes in children and adults are inadequate duration of antibiotic treatment, resistant organisms, and other disorders that predispose to infection (eg, Overview of Congenital Cardiovascular Anomalies , Immunodeficiency should be suspectedwhen recurrent infections are the following: Severe Complicated In multiple locations Refractory to standard treatment, ie, require multiple courses of oral antibiotics or any need for IV antibiotics to resolve Caused by unusual organisms Present in family members Initially, infections due to immunodeficiency are typically upper and lower respiratory tract infections (eg, Sinusitis , Immunodeficiency should also be suspected in infants or young children with chronic diarrhea and Failure to Thrive (FTT) in Children , especially when the diarrhea is caused by unusual viruses (eg, adenovirus) or fungi (eg, Less common manifestations include severe viral infection with Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Infections or 