Towards an FDA-cleared basophil activation test.

Food allergy is a global health problem affecting up to 10% of the world population. Accurate diagnosis of food allergies, however, is still a major challenge in medical offices and for patients seeking alternative avenues of diagnosis. A flawless test to confirm or rule out a food allergy does not exist.

Validation of inducible basophil biomarkers: Time, temperature and transportation.

Background: The short stability window of several hours from blood collection to measuring basophil activation has limited the use of flow cytometry-based basophil activation assays in clinical settings. We examine if it is possible to extend this window to 1 day allowing for shipment of samples between laboratories. Several options exist for reporting the results including reporting all the measured values directly, calculating ratios and reporting a single value covering all measured results.

NO-mediated alterations in skeletal muscle nutritive blood flow and lactate metabolism in fibromyalgia.

Unlabelled: The purpose of these investigations was to determine if differences exist in skeletal muscle nutritive blood flow and lactate metabolism in women with fibromyalgia (FM) compared to healthy women (HC); furthermore, to determine if differences in nitric oxide-mediated systems account for any detected alterations in blood flow and lactate metabolism and contribute to exertional fatigue in FM. FM (n = 8) and HC (n = 8) underwent a cycle ergometry test of aerobic capacity, a muscle biopsy for determination of nitric oxide synthase (eNOS, nNOS, iNOS) content, and microdialysis for investigation of muscle nutritive blood flow and lactate metabolism. During prolonged (3h) resting conditions, the ethanol outflow/inflow ratio (inversely related to blood flow) increased in FM over time compared to HC (P < 0.

The many faces of systemic mastocytosis.

Objective: This short review article will augment the reader's knowledge of mast cell physiology and will offer an overview of current information on the pathophysiology, heterogeneity, and treatment of human mastocystosis.

Data Sources And Study Selection: Articles published since 1980, textbooks, information from computerized databases, references identified from bibliographies of relevant articles, and books published in the last 10 years.

Results And Conclusions: Mastocytosis is a complex disease with a multitude of clinical presentations, often misdiagnosed, which can embrace characteristics of other diseases and generate a chameleon-like picture.