Summarized vs. Type-specific analysis of antibody to pneumococcal capsular polysaccharides

Type-specific analysis (based on the measurement of concentrations of individual types of pneumococcal antibody in sera from many patients) and summarized analysis (based on the measurement of the geometric mean concentrations of many different pneumococcal antibody types in serum from one patient) were compared to determine which type of analysis provided the better measure of central tendency of the response of a patient group to immunization with tetradecavalent pneumococcal vaccine. With use of data from a group of normal children and patients with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome and"the statistical method of linear discriminant analysis applied to the logarithms of the antibody concentrations, type-specific analysis was shown to be the preferable measure of central tendency.