Laboratory assessment of immune deficiency disorders

The clinical immunology laboratory is playing an ever-increasing role in the diagnosis and management of patients with abnormalities of immune function. This article focuses on the recent discoveries of gene lesions in the congenital immunodeficiencies and how these discoveries will affect the diagnosis and management of patients using the clinical immunology laboratory. Obviously, with technology and information transfer, these new approaches in the laboratory will have wide and immediate application to all forms of immunodeficiency.