Studies of immune complexes

As for incurable diseases, there are countless cures and for curable ones but a few, so for elusive diseases there are countless diagnostic maneuvers and for those we comprehend but a few, and for entities we cannot clearly define, there are countless laboratory tests, and for those we can, but a few. We appear to be at flood tide for the development of assays for those elusive entities, immune complexes, and for the application of those assays to elusive diseases - not just to rheumatologic diseases, but diseases in every category. If we have indeed come to the time where more restraint of both research energies and editorial liberality lies before us, there are good reasons. There is, I think, a sense of disappointment about what has been learned. Assays for immune complexes are diagnostic of no disease, they correlate with no particular clinical manifestations, and they probably do not even accurately point to a particular pathogenetic mechanism. If these assays are not living up to their expectations, it is partly because those expectations were misplaced. Their failure does not mean that the work has been in vain and that further work is unnecessary, but that the value of measuring immune complexes must be reconsidered.