CLIA Tetanus Toxoid IgG

Tetanus is a disease caused by the toxin produced by Clostridium tetani. The incidence of the disease has been reduced worldwide thanks to improved hygiene conditions and extensive vaccination prophylaxis. However, 400,000 to 800,000 people die from this infection every year. Most of these people live in developing countries. Vaccination-mediated protection decreases with age since tetanus antitoxin levels drop as an individual ages.

Adequate antibody protection is achieved by vaccination in childhood and subsequent booster doses. Protection starts at an anti-tetanus toxoid concentration of 0.1 IU/ml. While the vaccine does not usually cause side effects, measuring antibody titre before the booster dose is recommended. This way, side effects such as local oedema, pain and fever can be prevented. Sometimes, failure of the immune response may occur in patients with normal or high levels of all immunoglobulins and in patients with isolated immunodeficiencies.
Therefore, normal immunoglobulin concentrations do not rule out a deficiency of anti-tetanus antibodies and the response to antigenic stimulation should be tested. If antibody tests are performed a long time after the primary and booster vaccination, abnormalities in the occurrence of cell interactions and the level of determined titres may occur.