Phenotypic alteration of neuropeptide-containing nerve fibres in seasonal intermittent allergic rhinitis.

Background: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common allergic disease affecting the respiratory tract. Next to inflammatory changes, the airway innervation plays an important modulatory role in the pathogenesis of the disease.

Objective: To examine the participation of different neuropeptides in the human nasal mucosa of intermittent (seasonal) AR tissues in the allergic season.

[Quantification of atelectases in artificial respiration: spiral-CT versus dynamic single-slice CT].

Purpose: Dynamic CT (dCT) allows visualization and quantification of ventilated lung and atelectases with high temporal resolution during continuous ventilation. This study compares a quantitative image analysis in a subcarinal single slice dCT series versus a whole lung spiral-CT, in order to analyze, whether the distribution of atelectasis of a single dCT series is representative for the whole lung.

Materials And Methods: dCT in sliding windows technique (slice thickness 1 mm, temporal increment 100 ms) was performed in 8 healthy pigs 3 cm caudal to the carina during continuous mechanical ventilation.