CHRONIC GRANULOMATOUS DISEASE

chronic granulomatous disease: translation

Disease, usually fatal in childhood, in which the production of hydrogen peroxide by phagocytes does not occur because of a lesion in an NADP-dependent oxidase. Catalase-negative bacteria are not killed and there is no luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence when the cells are tested. The absence of the oxygen-dependent killing mechanism is not itself fatal but seriously compromises the primary defence system. At least three separate lesions can cause the syndrome, the commonest being a defect in plasma membrane cytochrome.