ABSTRACT
The human immune system is extremely complex and immunology is a subject in its own right. This chapter does not attempt to be a comprehensive description of the immune system, but concentrates on two particular aspects which are of importance to clinical chemists, namely immunoglobulins and complement. These are proteins that are routinely measured in most clinical chemistry departments to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases which are usually managed by hematologists and immunologists. In order to understand the role of these measurements in the management of such disorders, some basic understanding of immunology is required, as set out in the first part of the chapter.
