Cost-effectiveness of specific subcutaneous immunotherapy in patients with allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma.

Background: Specific immunotherapy is the only potentially curative treatment in patients with allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. Health economic evaluations on this treatment, particularly in a German context, are sparse.

Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of specific subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) in addition to symptomatic treatment (ST) compared with ST alone in a German health care setting.

Effect of azelastine on substance P content in bronchoalveolar and nasal lavage fluids of patients with allergic asthma.

The study was carried out to investigate the effect of azelastine on the Substance P (SP) concentration in bronchoalveolar (BAL) and nasal (NAL) lavage obtained from atopic grass pollen asthmatics and non-atopic healthy subjects. In BAL and NAL fluids there was a significant elevation in the baseline concentration of SP between asthmatics and volunteers. Allergen provocation induced a rise of SP in BAL and NAL in asthmatics, but not in volunteers.

Proliferative capacity of mononuclear cells in the human lung.

In pulmonary sarcoidosis, a chronic granulomatous disorder with different stages of activity, the proliferative capacity of the alveolar mononuclear cells is unknown. To get a closer look at this proliferation we combined pulse labeling (by means of tritium thymidine incorporation and autoradiography) with an immunocytochemical staining assay. This assay revealed on one single slide simultaneously blue CD4+ lymphocytes, brown CD8+ lymphocytes and red macrophages.