What are symptoms of IgA deficiency?
Many IgA-deficient patients are healthy, with no more than the usual number of infections. Those patients who do have symptoms typically have recurring ear, sinus, or lung infections that may not respond to standard courses of antibiotics. People with IgA-deficiency are likely to have other problems, including allergies, asthma, chronic diarrhea, and autoimmune diseases. How is IgA deficiency diagnosed? People with IgA deficiency have low levels of IgA antibodies in their blood. In contrast, their levels of IgM and IgG immunoglobulins usually are normal. IgA-deficient people also have normal levels of other immune system cells, including T cells, phagocytes, and complement proteins. Doctors diagnose IgA deficiency by doing tests to measure the amount of total immunoglobulin in the blood as well as the type of immunoglobulin known as IgG2. Other tests determine how well a person is producing antibodies against specific germs following immunization with a common vaccine, such as a tetanu
