Using a gluten oral food challenge protocol to improve diagnosis of wheat-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis.

Background: Oral wheat plus cofactors challenge tests in patients with wheat-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis (WDEIA) produce unreliable results.

Objective: We sought to confirm WDEIA diagnosis by using oral gluten flour plus cofactors challenge, to determine the amount of gluten required to elicit symptoms, and to correlate these results with plasma gliadin levels, gastrointestinal permeability, and allergologic parameters.

Methods: Sixteen of 34 patients with a history of WDEIA and ω5-gliadin IgE underwent prospective oral challenge tests with gluten with or without cofactors until objective symptoms developed.

[First annual report of practitioners of interventional cardiology in private practice in Germany. Results of procedures of left heart catheterization and coronary interventions in the year 1996].

The German Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions in Private Practice has started a registry of cardiac procedures since 1996 in order to establish a standard for performance. Although quality management for the cath lab makes sense and is also legally required, there is no generally recommended infrastructure for quality assurance existing in Germany at this time. Therefore, the German Society of Cardiologists in Private Practice (BNK) initiated a project in 1994 to develop a computer program for paperless documentation of diagnostic cardiac catheterizations and coronary interventions (PTCA) using a minimal data set.

Immune Sensitization to the 60 kD Heat Shock Protein and Pregnancy Outcome.

Heat shock proteins are highly conserved proteins present in organisms ranging from bacteria to man. They are both dominant microbial immunogens and among the first proteins produced during mammalian embryo development. Since bacterial and human heat shock proteins share a high degree of amino acid sequence homology, it has been suggested that sensitization to bacterial heat shock proteins during an infection may result in autoimmunity to human heat shock proteins.

Chlamydia trachomatis Infection, Immunity, and Pregnancy Outcome.

Chlamydia trachomatis can ascend from the cervix to the fallopian tubes and survive for long periods of time without causing symptoms. The immune response to infection clears the extracellular organisms but leads to development of a persistent intracellular infection. Repeated cycles of productive infection and persistence eventually induce tubal occlusion and infertility.