Anti-erythrocyte autoimmunization in hydatid disease

A 73-year-old man with hydatid disease developed autoimmune hemolytic anemia due to IgM cold agglutinin with anti-I specificity. Hemolysis decreased after initiating mebendazole therapy. The cysts notably diminished in size and the red cell autoantibodies disappeared at the end of this treatment. On the basis of these observations, 44 patients with hydatid disease were investigated. One patient showed IgM cold autoantibody with no signs of anemia. In addition, cleavage fragments of C3 were detected on the erythrocyte membranes of 6 patients, following chronic activation of the complement system. We suggest that parasitic antigens may evoke antibodies cross-reacting with the red blood cells of the host. © 1993 Springer-Verlag

Smallholders' and large estates' reaction to changed market conditions 1860–1910

Reduced transport costs and income growth in industrialising European countries changed the market conditions for European farmers in the late nineteenth century. Grain prices fell while dairy prices rose. It has been claimed that these price changes hit large grain farmers with vested interests in grain trade particularly hard, while owner-occupiers and smallholders fared better and with help of developing cooperative associations, came out as successful commercial agriculturalists by switching to intensive branches, foremost dairying. Recent research on the Danish case, shows, however, that change was initiated on large elite estates with long-term dairy traditions. The literature on the Swedish case indicates, that larger farms switched to intensified fodder production quicker than smaller farms did, while in the early twentieth century smaller farms played an un-proportionally large role on the dairy market. Using individual farm data from two East-central Swedish parishes in 1878/80, 1895/96 and 1910/11, it is shown, that larger farms tended to modernise crop rotations and switch towards dairy production earlier than small farms did. Smaller farms caught up, and by 1910 their land use was about as strongly adapted to commercial dairy production as larger farms' land use was.Agrarekonomisk tillväxt eller stagnation i Mälardalen: Regionala produktionsdata 1750-1920. Handelsbankens forskningsstiftelser, P2017-0029: