Allergic Background Research Articles

Generation Chain Relationships in Families of Asthmatic Children

Sixty asthmatic and non-asthmatic children with similar personal and familial allergic background were compared. The mothers of the asthmatic boys had a particular type of relationship with their own parents. They had a dysphoric mood and saw their children as being very dependent. The children showed denial of emotional involvement with family members. The association between findings on the mother-grandparent relationship and the mother-child relationship is discussed.

Morphological changes in the internal organs in chronic streptococcal infection

A histological and histochemical study was made (for a period of from 24 hours to 27 weeks) of the internal organs of albino mice after a single intraperitoneal injection of the L-forms of beta-hemolytic streptococcus, group A. The following progressive pathological process (myocarditis, hepatitis, pyelonephritis) developed against an intense allergic background with a resultant systemic lesion of the tissues.

Acquired Circulating Anticoagulant to Factor VIII

Hematuria, arthralgias, and bleeding from subcutaneous and soft tissues developed in a 56-year-old man with an allergic background following a course of sulfisoxazole for urinary tract infection, Coagulation studies demonstrated the presence of an inhibitor to factor VIII in high titers. Massive doses of antihemophilic factor concentrate (30,000 to 60,000 units/day), azathioprine, and corticosteroids were followed by an immediate decrease in bleeding and a reduced level of inhibitor units. Three months after the onset of symptoms, the partial thromboplastin time returned to normal and inhibitor units to factor VIII became undetectable.

Influência da fonte de antigeno e dos fatores alérgicos no teste intradérmico da esquistossomose mansônica

73 (setenta e três) pacientes esquistosscmóticos e 29 (vinte e neve) indivíduos não-parasitados foram testados peio teste intradérmico para esquistossomose mansônioa utilizando-se antígeno de vermes adultos S. manseni obtidos per filtração sanguínea humana. O teste foi comparado com o antígeno clássico obtido de vermes do camundongo, observando-se a interferência de manifestações alérgicas.

Urticaire chronique et aedème de Quincke

The authors report their experiments with 100 cases of chronic urticaria or angioneurotic aedema. They point out especially the frequency of the allergic background (75% of the cases), the importance of the part played by<i> Candida albicans</i> and the results obtained by the treatment with nystatin (33%of good or very good results) or by desensitization to candidine (49% of good or very good results).It is quite certain that other infections or sensitizations can be responsible, their demonstration and the establishment of a specific treatment can similarly give good results.

Infection, Allergy and the Pathogenesis of Rheumatic Disease

SummaryThe finding of different antibodies (antistreptolysins, etc.) against β-streptococci in serum suggests an etiological connection between these organisms and rheumatic disease. No conclusions can be drawn, however, as to the pathogenetic mechanisms, for the antibodies mentioned are active mainly in immune defence.The more common types of allergy are reviewed and the author discusses different possibilities for streptococcal infections to produce symptoms of rheumatic disease by means of allergic mechanisms. The transient rheumatoids are probably closely related to serum sickness. The first attack of acute rheumatic fever may have a similar allergic background (a form of »seroallergy« according to the terminology of the present author), but it is probable that the main factor is a streptococcal allergy of tuberculin-type — a »microbin allergy« — (the same type that is found in infections with M. tuberculosis, several fungi, etc.).At subsequent relapses the microbin allergy to β-streptococci is the do...

Clinical hypersensitivity to cigarette smoke.

Eight individuals were observed to have clinical hypersensitivity to cigarette smoke, as well as lymphocyte stimulation when their peripheral blood lymphocytes were incubated in vitro with cigarette smoke. All eight individuals were nonsmokers with strong allergic backgrounds and all developed immediate upper respiratory discomfort after being exposed to cigarette smoke. Cigarette smoke may be responsible for respiratory distress in nonsmoking sensitized individuals

Acute bronchiolitis and the asthmatic child.

Bronchiolitis is a common respiratory infection in the allergic infant and young child and is followed hy recurrent asthma in 25 to 30%.l, Asthma is a syndrome of recurring dyspnea, more marked on expiration and associated with wheezing. The exciting cause may or may not be protein sensitization.3 Typical expiratory wheezing associated with infection in the respiratory tract is a comnion observation in non-atopic as well as atopic infants. Differentiation of bronchiolitis from asthma can be difficult. Homww-, the striking dyspnea and associated toxicity in bronchiolitis are niost helpful in making this differentiati~n.~ A variety of microorganisnis have been implicated as the etiologic agents in bronchiolitis. These include Hernophilus iiifluenzae, Diplococcus pneumoniac, Coliform bacteria and Respiratory syncytial (RS) , Adeno and Parainfluenza viruses as the most frequently suspected. Recently RS virus has been shown to be the major definable etiologic agent of the bronchiolitis syndrome.5* 6, An allergic diathesis appears to predispose the development of bronchiolitis during RS infection.s This report describes 100 hospitalized infants and children ill with acute bronchiolitis. Viral studies of 40 children implicate the role of allergy and common respiratory infections in the etiology of bronchiolitis. This study was undertaken to answer first the question whether an allergic background predisposes the development of bronchiolitis ; secondly to investigate the possibility that bronchiolitis, an infectious disease, produces and increases the incidence of bronchial asthma.

Dynamics of autosensitization dermatitis; a clinical and microscopic concept of autoeczematization.

Autoeczematization1,2is the process by which a widespread dermatitis may complicate several types of localized eczema. Generalized autogenous eczema describes the disseminate disorder. This report deals with the clinical history, course, and development of the syndrome and with the microscopic picture of various types of lesions to be found in the diffuse and often generalized eruption. Relationships between generalized autogenous eczema, disseminate and circumscribed neurodermatitis, nummular eczema, and exudative discoid and lichenoid chronic dermatosis are discussed. Clinical Material Sixty persons, thirty-three women and twenty-seven men, who developed generalized autogenous eczema were studied. The average age was 47.7 years; the youngest was 1 year, and the oldest, 80. Fifty-seven were of Caucasian origin, and three were Negro. Thirty-six patients either recalled eczema as a child or had hay fever or a history of allergy in the family. In seven, the history of an allergic background was

Proctalgia fugax infantum: Painful defecation in allergic infants

Summary A condition of transitory proctalgia occurring in connection with defecation in infants with allergic backgrounds is presented. Its probable modus operandi is discussed. The condition is self-limited in scope with a time factor similar to that of colic.

Radical Pansinus Operations in Cases of Nasal Polyps: A Follow-Up Study

The etiology of nasal polyps is still in dispute notwithstanding that they are now generally considered to have an allergic background. Despite pronounced allergic nasal trouble, however, most people do not develop nasal polyps even after a course of many years. In addition, when nasal polyps do develop, they always spring from certain regions of the mucous membrane in the nose and sinuses, while other regions remain unaffected. The reason for such selectivity is unknown. The incidence varies geographically also. Therapeutic measures have been and are still extremely varied. Conservative treatment consisting of restricted diet and general desensitizing measures is one extreme; operative procedures ranging from isolated snaring of more or less easily accessible polyps in the nose to radical surgery on all nasal sinuses are the other. Naturally difficulties are encountered in attempting objective comparison of the effect of different methods of treatment. Standardized registration of the degree of

Allergy and chronic bronchitis: A pilot study of possible relationships

A pilot study of 30 patients with chronic bronchitis is described with particular reference to the role allergy might play in the aetiology. The methods used gave no conclusive evidence of specific allergic sensitivity in the majority of the cases studied. It is concluded that this may be due to the absence of allergic sensitivity, the limitations of the available tests for allergy or to the definition of our cases resulting in the exclusion of those with an easily demonstrable allergic background. The physiological and pathological changes found in the main bronchi were very mild indeed compared with the morbid anatomical changes at the level of the terminal bronchioles described by others. Extension of the investigation on similar lines is not considered worth while.

Infection, Allergy and the Pathogenesis of Rheumatic Disease.

SummaryThe finding of different antibodies (antistreptolysins, etc.) against β-streptococci in serum suggests an etiological connection between these organisms and rheumatic disease. No conclusions can be drawn, however, as to the pathogenetic mechanisms, for the antibodies mentioned are active mainly in immune defence.The more common types of allergy are reviewed and the author discusses different possibilities for streptococcal infections to produce symptoms of rheumatic disease by means of allergic mechanisms. The transient rheumatoids are probably closely related to serum sickness. The first attack of acute rheumatic fever may have a similar allergic background (a form of »seroallergy« according to the terminology of the present author), but it is probable that the main factor is a streptococcal allergy of tuberculin-type — a »microbin allergy« — (the same type that is found in infections with M. tuberculosis, several fungi, etc.).At subsequent relapses the microbin allergy to β-streptococci is the do...

Meniere's Disease, Cochlear Type

The cochlear type of Meniere's disease was described by Brunner. 1 Deafness was the cardinal symptom, and there was no history of any vertiginous attack. Williams and associates 2 reported a number of cases of endolymphatic hydrops without vertigo. Their diagnosis was based on a history of an allergic background, a fluctuating low-tone hearing loss of sudden onset, and diplacusis. As a confirmatory therapeutic test, these authors cited the favorable results they obtained from the administration of histamine. The audiologic study of Meniere patients during the past 12 years yielded some interesting results. The Meniere cochlear function seems to be encumbered with numerous pathologicophysiologic details. These are revealed in relation to tonal perception, selective hearing, threshold of discomfort, and intelligibility of speech. To be sure, the great majority of my patients presented the complete symptom complex of vertigo, deafness, and tinnitus. The aim is to gather the facts that make

Cutaneous Lesions of Allergic Granulomatosis : A Histopathologic Study

Allergic granulomatosis is a clinical and pathologic syndrome occurring in individuals with an allergic background. It is characterized by fever, leukocytosis, eosinophilia and frequent pulmonary infiltrations of the type seen in Loeffler's pneumonia. As a rule, these are accompanied by manifestation of systemic-vascular, cardiac, gastro-intestinal, renal, nervous and cutaneous-involvement. Studies of systemic changes have been reported by several authors (1, 2, 3, 4). The present communication deals with the histology of the cutaneous lesions.

Oral administration of procaine with ascorbic acid, with special reference to the therapy of pruritus.

THE IDEA of using procaine hydrochloride for the treatment of allergic conditions is not new. The drug has been used intravenously, with success in many cases, in the treatment of pruritus, 1 status asthmaticus 2 and serum sickness 3 for several years. A recent paper 4 briefly discusses the oral use of a procaine salt in the treatment of bronchial asthma in a person known to be sensitive to the drug when it is given parenterally. This communication is a preliminary report concerning the use of procaine hydrochloride with ascorbic acid by mouth in the treatment of various disorders, many of which have an allergic background. The pertinent data on 10 cases are presented in the accompanying table. Three representative case records are given below. REPORT OF CASES Case 6.— The patient was a white female nurse, aged 22, who sustained a laceration with a contusion of the left hand from

Unusual reaction to penicillin.

Severe transient allergic reactions to penicillin have been reported, 1 but to our knowledge no case of proved myocarditis and hepatitis associated with giant urticaria has ever been published. Watson lb reported a case in which there was severe indigestion, pain behind the sternum and swelling of the hands, feet and face, but he was unable to obtain any objective evidence of myocardial or hepatic derangement. The literature abounds with reports of structural and functional cardiac, renal and hepatic damage due to the so-called collagen diseases. 2 These changes are more or less permanent and are usually fatal. The allergic background for this condition has been stressed by Harris 2c and Rich. 2d On the other hand, Klemperer 3 hesitates to accept the doctrine of allergic origin for all the collagen diseases, especially lupus erythematosus. He points out that any number of chemical and physical agents may produce similar lesions.

Transitory Migratory Pulmonary Infiltrations Associated With Eosinophilia (Loeffler's Syndrome): With the Report of an Additional Case

Since Loeffler's syndrome was first described in 1932, a large number of cases have been reported in the foreign literature and a small number in the English-American literature. Whether all of the reported cases are true instances of the syndrome is open to decided doubt. The syndrome is best described as a transitory, migratory pulmonary infiltration, demonstrable by roentgenologic examination and associated with eosinophilia, which may be very marked. The severity of the roentgenologic findings is in surprising contrast to the physical examination, which is frequently entirely negative, and to the minor symptomatology and mild clinical course. The pathogenesis is still undetermined, but the disease is now generally believed to develop on an allergic background, and intestinal parasitism has been identified as the causative agent in the few cases in which any identification at all has been possible. Diagnosis rests upon the radiologic picture, the transience of the roentgenologic findings, and the degree of eosinophilia. It cannot be made upon a single film. Pulmonary tuberculosis is the most frequent differential diagnostic consideration, and for therapeutic reasons the differentiation is extremely important. Therapy is directed toward the allergic disease, Loeffler's syndrome, in itself seldom requiring treatment. An additional case of Loeffler's syndrome is herewith added to the American literature of the subject.