of the

Experimental forms of IVIG were available in Europe (15) and Australia (16) in the late 1960s and in the United States in the early 1970s (17). Initially, the intravenous preparations were compared to intramuscular gammaglobulin either directly or to an historical control period (17-21). In an early study, 20 patients were treated with a modified immune serum globulin prepared by reduction and alkylation (18). Mild adverse events, including nausea, flushing, fever, headache, and muscle cramps, were common, but no catastrophic reactions occurred. While treated with 150 mg/kg/month of the intravenous preparation, the patients had only 0 .103 acute infections per month compared to 0.295 infections per month while receiving the intramuscular gammaglobulin.