Dysregulated specific IgE production to bystander foods in children with peanut allergy but not egg allergy.

Background: Food specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) levels are associated with the development of allergic responses and are used in the clinical evaluation of food allergy. Food sIgG4 levels have been associated with tolerance or clinical nonresponsiveness, particularly in interventional studies.

Objective: We aimed to characterize food-specific antibody responses and compare responses with different foods in food allergy.

Clinical Predictors and Outcomes of Oral Food Challenges Illustrate Differences Among Individual Tree Nuts.

Background: Although allergy to tree nuts is often considered a single entity, there is heterogeneity in patient reactivity and immune response to different tree nuts.

Objective: We sought to characterize tree nut oral food challenges (OFCs) in a pediatric population performed at a single center over a 12-year period and determine differences in OFC outcome to different tree nuts.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted in patients (0-20 years) who completed an unblinded OFC to any tree nut from 2007 to 2019 at Lurie Chlildren's Hospital of Chicago.

Use of alcohol biomarkers to identify alcohol misuse in organ donors.

Phosphatidylethanol is a direct alcohol biomarker for identifying alcohol misuse. It carries several advantages over other alcohol biomarkers, including a detection half-life of several weeks and little confounding by patient characteristics or organ dysfunction. The aim of this study is to derive an optimal phosphatidylethanol cut point to identify organ donors with alcohol misuse, and to assess the impact of alcohol misuse on organ allocation.

Recent alcohol use prolongs hospital length of stay following lung transplant.

Little is known about the alcohol habits of people with advanced lung disease. Following lung transplantation, patients are asked to abstain from or minimize alcohol use. The aim of this investigation was to assess alcohol use in a cohort of patients with advanced lung disease undergoing evaluation for lung transplant.

Cut-Point Levels of Phosphatidylethanol to Identify Alcohol Misuse in a Mixed Cohort Including Critically Ill Patients.

Background: Although alcohol misuse is associated with deleterious outcomes in critically ill patients, its detection by either self-report or examination of biomarkers is difficult to obtain consistently. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) is a direct alcohol biomarker that can characterize alcohol consumption patterns; however, its diagnostic accuracy in identifying misuse in critically ill patients is unknown.

Methods: PEth values were obtained in a mixed cohort comprising 122 individuals from medical and burn intensive care units (n = 33), alcohol detoxification unit (n = 51), and healthy volunteers (n = 38).