Publications by authors named "Gianni Passalacqua"

Background: Asthma prevalence among COVID-19 patients seems to be surprisingly low. However the clinical profile of COVID-19 asthmatic patients and potential determinants of higher susceptibility/worse outcome have been scarcely investigated. We aimed to describe the prevalence and features of asthmatic patients hospitalized for COVID-19 and to explore the association between their clinical asthma profile and COVID-19 severity.

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Medical devices provide people with some health benefits in terms of diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and monitoring of disease processes. Different medical specialties use varieties of medical devices more or less specific for them. Allergology is an interdisciplinary field of medical science and teaches that allergic reactions are of systemic nature but can express themselves at the level of different organs across the life cycle of an individual.

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Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease.

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Unlabelled: Chronic urticaria (CU) has a widespread spectrum on causal or exacerbating factors, clinical manifestations, therapeutic response and quality of life affectation. Registries are useful tools in several real-life diagnosis and management approach.We aimed to evaluate the characteristics of CU patients living in Latin America through an original cross-sectional registry with data entered by regional allergologists.

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Asthma is a common inflammatory airway disease for which the most commonly used controller medications are inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). Asthma control is difficult to achieve in individuals with severe asthma, which comprise 5% to 10% of individuals with asthma, even with high doses of ICS and other anti-inflammatory drugs. In this clinical context, the adverse effects of ICS (including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression, reduction in growth velocity, osteoporosis, diabetes, and respiratory infections) become more probable and impacting on the quality of life of severe asthmatics.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Allergic rhinitis (AR) affects a significant portion of the population (10%-40%), impacting quality of life and productivity, with costs of lost work being higher than asthma costs, leading to an update of the ARIA guidelines since their last revision in 2010.
  • - The updated ARIA guidelines include new recommendations on the pharmacologic treatment of AR, with a focus on various treatment options like oral antihistamines, intranasal corticosteroids, and leukotriene receptor antagonists.
  • - The guidelines aim to enhance patient care by providing tailored treatment choices, which could lead to improvements in quality of life and productivity for those affected by AR.
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Background: Data about allergic rhinitis in elderly patients with asthma are lacking.

Objective: To investigate the presence of rhinitis and the role of sensitization of airborne allergens in elderly patients with asthma.

Methods: This was a multicenter cross-sectional study involving subjects at least 65 years old with asthma.

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Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is an effective and well-tolerated method of treating allergic respiratory diseases associated with seasonal and perennial allergens. In contrast to the subcutaneous route, SLIT requires a much greater amount of antigen to achieve a clinical effect. Many studies have shown that SLIT involves a dose-response relationship, and therefore it is important to use a proven clinically effective dose from the onset of treatment, because low doses are ineffective and very high doses may increase the risk of side effects.

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Background. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy-related inflammation (CAA-ri) results from autoimmune response to beta-amyloid deposits in cerebral vessels. Its clinical course and complications have seldom been described in literature.

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Objective: The aim of the present community-based study was to evaluate the level of asthma control in patients with mild asthma, regularly treated with inhaled steroids (ICS).

Method: This observational cross-sectional study included patients registered in the general practitioner (GP) database and with at least three prescriptions of ICS in the last 12 months. Patients were asked to refer to the doctor's office for a standardised interview.

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In less than half a century, allergy, originally perceived as a rare disease, has become a major public health threat, today affecting the lives of more than 60 million people in Europe, and probably close to one billion worldwide, thereby heavily impacting the budgets of public health systems. More disturbingly, its prevalence and impact are on the rise, a development that has been associated with environmental and lifestyle changes accompanying the continuous process of urbanization and globalization. Therefore, there is an urgent need to prioritize and concert research efforts in the field of allergy, in order to achieve sustainable results on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this most prevalent chronic disease of the 21st century.

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Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common allergic disease. The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) guidelines classify AR according to its duration and severity and suggest recommended treatments, but there is evidence that these guidelines are insufficiently followed. Considering the validity of histopathological data, physicians are more likely to be persuaded by such information on AR.

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Background: The most common pollen-fruit cross-reaction is the birch-apple syndrome. Allergen immunotherapy (IT) is clearly effective for birch allergy, but its efficacy on apple allergy is controversial. We performed a randomized study on patients with birch-apple syndrome to evaluate the outcome of subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT).

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Background: Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) is an effective tool in treating patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF), since it reduces both the need for endotracheal intubation and the mortality in comparison with nonventilated patients. A particular issue is represented by the outcome of NIMV in patients referred to the emergency department for ARF and with a do-not-intubate (DNI) status because of advanced age or excessively critical conditions. This study evaluated long-term survival in a group of elderly patients with acute hypercapnic ARF who had a DNI order and who were successfully treated by NIMV.

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Objectives: To evaluate the performances of an allergen microarray in multi-sensitized allergic patients with respiratory symptoms.

Design And Methods: 321 patients and 92 controls were included in this study. Specific serum IgE were assayed using ImmunoCAP ISAC, a microarray containing 103 components derived from 47 allergens and results were compared with extract-based ImmunoCAP Allergens sIgE to 15 common airborne allergens.

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Objectives: Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is a viable alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy to treat allergic rhinitis and asthma, and is widely used in clinical practice in many European countries. The clinical efficacy of SLIT has been established in a number of clinical trials and meta-analyses. However, because SLIT is self-administered by patients without medical supervision, the degree of patient adherence with treatment is still a concern.

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The use of medications could be responsible of both side effects and adverse drug reaction (ADR). Identifying risk factors could improve the possibility of avoiding severe reactions in old people. We investigated the prevalence of unpredictable drug adverse reactions among patients admitted to the emergency departments (EDs) of three large Italian hospitals in the period 2005-2008.

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Over the last few years, the importance of sport in everyday life has rapidly increased. Asthma and allergic rhinitis are among the most common problems to be afforded in those practising sports. It is believed that allergy represents a limitation to sport activity, but many elite athletes suffer from respiratory allergy: within those participating in the Olympic Games, 49% suffered from allergic rhinitis, and 20% of winter sport athletes suffered from asthma.

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