The effectiveness of levocetirizine and desloratadine in up to 4 times conventional doses in difficult-to-treat urticaria.

Background: H(1)-antihistamines are first line treatment of chronic urticaria, but many patients do not get satisfactory relief with recommended doses. European guidelines recommend increased antihistamine doses of up to 4-fold.

Objective: To provide supportive evidence for the European guidelines.

Evaluation of a simple, potentially individual device for exhaled breath temperature measurement.

Rationale: Inflammation is a universal pathological reaction and is characterized among other things by increased heat production. The question stays whether the contribution of the inflamed lung tissues to the overall exhaled breath temperature (EBT) can be reliably detected and used in everyday clinical practice.

Methods: We have designed a simple device for assessment of EBT and explored its performance under standard indoor conditions.

[The clinical characteristics of the early stages of occupational fluorosis under the combined and joint action of production factors].

Over 1000 workers of hydrofluoric and cryolite enterprises and electrolysis shops of aluminium enterprises were examined. Subjects exposed to soluble hydrofluorides presented in the early stage of chronic intoxication with a variety of syndromes, that was characteristic of intoxication with poisons of general toxic action with involvement of hepatobiliary, digestive, circulatory and autonomic nervous systems. Combined exposure to fluoric compounds, heating microclimate and electromagnetic fields results in a graver involvement of the circulatory and autonomic nervous systems.

[The possibility of using computed tomography in the diagnosis of silicosis and silicotuberculosis].

Potentials of computed tomography application to occupational pulmonology are not identified yet, hence it has a limited utility in this sphere. Computed tomography combined with roentgenologic methods serves to specify the origin and size of affected mediastinal nodes, to distinguish between silicotic and silicotuberculotic affects and nodules. Additional data are required.