Maintenance-Free Smart Hand Dynamometer.

Grip strength measurement is one of the most accessible methods for measuring overall muscle strength, and many studies have shown a link between low grip strength and future diseases. In recent years, devices for grip strength measurements that can connect to digital devices for automatic data recording have been developed. However, such devices have high development costs and require daily maintenance.

[Usefulness of skin prick test using bifurcated needle for the diagnosis of food allergy among infantile atopic dermatitis--second report. In the case of cow's milk allergy].

Objective: We investigated the usefulness of skin prick test (SPT) using bifurcated needle (BN) for the diagnosis of cow's milk allergy (CMA) in early infancy.

Subjects And Methods: Among atopic dermatitis infants with suspicion of food allergy who visited Sagamihara National hospital from January 2001 to April in 2005, 168 cases had received both SPT and IgE ImmunoCAP of CM (CM-IgE) at first visit. We analyzed results of SPT and CM-IgE, focused on infants with negative CM-IgE to examine the usefulness of SPT, and checked positive conversion of CM-IgE with aging.

[Usefulness of skin prick test using bifurcated needle for the diagnosis of food allergy in infantile atopic dermatitis--1st report. Case of egg allergy].

Objective: We investigated the usefulness of skin prick test (SPT) for the diagnosis of egg white (EW) allergy in infants with atopic dermatitis who showed negative to EW CAPRAST, and followed up the EW-CAPRAST in this study.

Subjects And Methods: Data of negative SPT using Bifurcated needle (BN) were analyzed from the data of 202 atopic dermatitis infants, who had received SPT from January in 2001 to April in 2005. From the negative SPT value (average and standard deviation) positive SPT value was obtained.

[Feature of food allergy developed during infancy (2)--acquisition of tolerance against hen's egg, cow's milk, wheat, and soybean up to 3 years old].

Background: Once food elimination is introduced, it is important to know for doctors when patients generally develop oral tolerance against eliminated food. To clarify the point, following study was conducted.

Methods: We analyzed 304 patient profiles with food allergy in our division between 1994 and 2001.

[Feature of food allergy developed during infancy (1)--relationship between infantile atopic dermatitis and food allergy].

Background: Most of food allergy (FA) cases during childhood start as infantile atopic dermatitis (AD) at the ages of a few months old. We tried to clarify the association between infantile AD and FA during infancy.

Methods: We analyzed relationship between AD and FA during infancy among patients with 208 cases, who had visited our outpatient clinic with chief complaint of "eczema" from 1998 to 2000.

[Allergenic activity of non-calcinated egg shell calcium].

Background: There is few data to prove the safety of egg shell calcium as allergen. Especially, non-calcinated egg shell calcium is not allowed to use without the description of origin of egg on food labels in Japan.

Method: We evaluated the possibly contaminated egg allergens in commercial non-calcinated egg shell calcium made from egg by in vitro methodologies (SDS-PAGE, western blotting, inhibition ELISA and sandwich ELISA) and by single-blind oral non-calcinated egg shell calcium challenge on 6 egg hypersensitivity patients.

[Thalidomide therapy for infantile-onset Crohn's disease].

A 6-month-old boy was diagnosed as having Crohn's disease (CD) by the endoscopic examination. Primary immunodeficiency syndrome was initially suspected due to a refractory infection that occurred just after birth and a family history that his older brother died at the age of 3 months of septicemia associated with perirectal abscess. Thalidomide was used because conventional medical treatment by steroids and immunosuppressives was ineffective.

[The prognosis of asthmatic children with status asthmatics in early childhood].

To clarify the prognosis of asthmatic children with status asthmatics in early childhood, we retrospectively investigated 113 patients (boys: 62, girls: 51) who had been treated as status asthmatics since 1995 through 2000 in National Sagamihara Hospital. In this study, the frequency of admission was decreased year by year, 62.8% (1st year), 29.