To the Editor: In his paper on the function of the reticuloendothelial system in patients treated with methyldopa (September 5 issue),1 Dr. Kelton suggested that methyldopa itself may cause depressed reticuloendothelial-system function. However, his analysis of the patient group he studied was incomplete. Prolonged Fc-dependent reticuloendothelial-system function has been observed2,3 in disease-free persons with the HLA alloantigens B8, DR3, DR2, and DQw1. In Dr. Kelton's study, of the seven patients taking methyldopa who were typed for HLA-DR antigens, four had clearance values that were prolonged beyond the 95 percent confidence limits for the normal persons studied. However, two of these… © 1986, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.
