Immunosuppressive Agents

Abstract

THE administration of drugs for the purpose of altering immune responses in diseases that are associated with or suspected of involvement of pathogenic immunologic reactions is one of the most controversial subjects in clinical pharmacology today. This situation arises from two fundamental problems. The first is that, with the exception of the unique situation related to organ transplantation, the origin of these disorders and the precise pathologic role of immune phenomena remain obscure. In clinical entities associated with measurable immunologic indexes such as hypergammaglobulinemia or rheumatoid-factor titers, there is no definite correlation between changes in these measurements and clinical responsiveness . . .