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Leonard H. Calabrese, DO; Manjula K. Gupta, PhD
Cleveland Clinic

JAMA. 1985;253(1):43.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

The study of Zolla-Pazner et al¹ is important in the search for useful clinical tests for diagnosis and management of persons at high risk for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). They have demonstrated that β₂-microglobulin (β₂M) is a highly sensitive and specific test for AIDS and AIDS-like illnesses. Furthermore, they have shown it to be of prognostic value with six of seven healthy homosexuals with elevated levels progressing to some form of clinical disease. We would like to draw attention to the fact that sensitivity and specificity data, derived from areas where the incidence and prevalence of clinical and subclinical disease are high, may not be totally relevant in areas with a lower incidence and prevalence of clinical and subclinical disease.

The northeastern Ohio area contains approximately 3.5 million people, and as of Jan 1,1984, has reported 15 cases of AIDS. From . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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