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Arthus reactions (type III hypersensitivity reactions) are rarely reported after vaccination and can occur after tetanus toxoid–containing or diphtheria toxoid–containing vaccines. An Arthus reaction is a local vasculitis associated with deposition of immune complexes and activation of complement.
Serum sickness is a type III hypersensitivity reaction, caused by immune complexes. [2] When an antiserum is given, the human immune system can mistake the proteins present for harmful antigens . The body produces antibodies, which combine with these proteins to form immune complexes. [ 2 ]
The mechanism by which immune complexes are pathogenic is complex and much of what we know is derived from experimental models of the Arthus reaction and serum sickness. These models support that Fc receptors play a dominant role in the response which can be augmented by the complement system via the anaphylatoxin C5a.
The immune reactions are usually referred to as an over-reaction of the immune system and they are often damaging and uncomfortable. [ 4 ] In 1963, Philip George Houthem Gell and Robin Coombs introduced a systematic classification of the different types of hypersensitivity based on the types of antigens and immune responses involved. [ 5 ]
Although the exact pathogenesis is poorly understood, serum sickness–like reactions are thought to originate from an abnormal inflammatory reaction that occurs in response to defective metabolism of drug byproducts generated during pharmacologic therapy; the metabolic flaw could be a maternally-inherited trait.
Henoch–Schönlein purpura is a small-vessel vasculitis in which complexes of immunoglobulin A (IgA) and complement component 3 (C3) are deposited on arterioles, capillaries, and venules (hence it is a type III hypersensitivity reaction).
Serum therapy, also known as serotherapy, describes the treatment of infectious disease using the serum of animals that have been immunized against the specific organisms or their product, to which the disease is supposedly referable.
The symptoms of DRESS syndrome usually begin 2 to 6 weeks but uncommonly up to 8–16 weeks after exposure to an offending drug. Symptoms generally include fever, an often itchy rash which may be morbilliform or consist mainly of macules or plaques, facial edema (i.e. swelling, which is a hallmark of the disease), enlarged and sometimes painful lymph nodes, and other symptoms due to ...