Bird fancier's lung: a series of 86 patients.

Bird fancier's lung (BFL) is one of the most common types of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Nevertheless, the criteria for diagnosing this condition are not standardized. The current study is an in-depth investigation into the clinical characteristics of BFL in the largest series examined for this purpose by a single group, to our knowledge, taking into account the acute, subacute, or chronic clinical presentation.

Occupational vocal cord dysfunction due to exposure to wood dust and xerographic toner.

Objectives: Vocal cord dysfunction is a poorly understood entity that is often misdiagnosed as asthma. Both irritant and non-irritant vocal cord dysfunction have been described. This report presents two cases of irritant vocal cord dysfunction secondary to specific environmental exposure, the first to iroko and western red cedar wood (a carpenter) and the second to xerographic printing toner (a secretary).

[Monitoring of asthma outpatients after adapting treatment to meet international guidelines].

Objective: Poor control of asthma treated in outpatient settings has been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to perform a short intervention, readily replicable in everyday practice, to try to improve control of the disease.

Patients And Methods: Two primary health care clinics made appointments with asthma patients to administer a questionnaire and adapt their treatment to the guidelines of the Global Initiative for Asthma.

Suberosis: clinical study and new etiologic agents in a series of eight patients.

Background: Penicillium frequentans is considered to be the causal agent of suberosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis due to cork dust inhalation. Nevertheless, other fungi can colonize cork during its storage period in humid conditions. The aims of the study were to assess the etiologic role of several fungi and cork itself in the genesis of suberosis, and to review the clinical characteristics of patients with this disease.

[Hypersensitivity pneumonitis in construction plasterers (espartosis): study of 20 patients].

Background And Objective: Espartosis is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis which frequently affects construction workers handling esparto fibres used as support material inside gypsum plaster. Exactly which agents produce this disease remains under discussion. The aims of this study were: a) to assess the possible etiologic role of the fungi colonizing esparto grass fibres and esparto itself in the genesis of this disease, and b) to describe the clinical characteristics of this disease in a large series of patients.