Polyunsaturated fatty acids in plasma at 8 years and subsequent allergic disease.

Background: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are hypothesized to modulate the risk of allergic disease. However, evidence from previous studies is inconclusive, and limited longitudinal data exist using circulating biomarkers of PUFA intake and metabolism.

Objective: We aimed to investigate associations between n-3 and n-6 PUFAs at age 8 years and asthma, rhinitis, and aeroallergen sensitization at age 16 years.

Combined effects of multiple risk factors on asthma in school-aged children.

Background: Little is known about synergistic effects of several risk factors on asthma. We developed a risk score in Puerto Rican children, and then used this score to estimate the combined effects of multiple risk factors on asthma at school age in Puerto Rican and Swedish children.

Methods: Case-control study in 609 Puerto Rican children (aged 6-14 years) and longitudinal birth cohort study of 2290 Swedish children followed up to age 12 years (The Children, Allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, Epidemiological Survey [BAMSE] Study).

Urban upbringing and childhood respiratory and allergic conditions: A multi-country holistic study.

Objective: We integratively assessed the effect of different indoor and outdoor environmental exposures early in life on respiratory and allergic health conditions among children from (sub-) urban areas.

Methods: This study included children participating in four ongoing European birth cohorts located in three different geographical regions: INMA (Spain), LISAplus (Germany), GINIplus (Germany) and BAMSE (Sweden). Wheezing, bronchitis, asthma and allergic rhinitis throughout childhood were assessed using parental-completed questionnaires.

Current state and future of pediatric allergology in Europe: A road map.

The history of pediatric allergology (PA) in Europe is relatively youthful, dating back to 1984, when a small group of pediatricians founded the European Working Group on Pediatric Allergy and Immunology-later giving rise to ESPACI (European Society on Pediatric Allergology and Clinical Immunology). In 1990, the first dedicated journal, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology (PAI), was founded. There are striking differences across Europe, and even within European countries, in relation to the training pathways for doctors seeing children with allergic disease(s).

Lung function after extremely preterm birth-A population-based cohort study (EXPRESS).

Background And Objectives: Follow-up studies of children and young adults born very-to-moderately preterm show persistent and significant lung function deficits. The aim of the study was to determine lung function and airway mechanics in school-aged children born in 2004 to 2007 and extremely preterm (after 22-26 weeks of gestation).

Methods: In a population-based cohort of children born extremely preterm and controls born at term (n = 350), follow-up at 6½-years-of-age was performed using spirometry and impulse oscillometry.

Hypomethylation of HOXA4 promoter is common in Silver-Russell syndrome and growth restriction and associates with stature in healthy children.

Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is a growth retardation syndrome in which loss of methylation on chromosome 11p15 (11p15 LOM) and maternal uniparental disomy for chromosome 7 [UPD(7)mat] explain 20-60% and 10% of the syndrome, respectively. To search for a molecular cause for the remaining SRS cases, and to find a possible common epigenetic change, we studied DNA methylation pattern of more than 450 000 CpG sites in 44 SRS patients. Common to all three SRS subgroups, we found a hypomethylated region at the promoter region of HOXA4 in 55% of the patients.

CHRODIS criteria applied to the MASK (MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel NetworK) Good Practice in allergic rhinitis: a SUNFRAIL report.

A Good Practice is a practice that works well, produces good results, and is recommended as a model. MACVIA-ARIA Sentinel Network (MASK), the new Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) initiative, is an example of a Good Practice focusing on the implementation of multi-sectoral care pathways using emerging technologies with real life data in rhinitis and asthma multi-morbidity. The European Union Joint Action on Chronic Diseases and Promoting Healthy Ageing across the Life Cycle (JA-CHRODIS) has developed a checklist of 28 items for the evaluation of Good Practices.

Maternal BMI at the start of pregnancy and offspring epigenome-wide DNA methylation: findings from the pregnancy and childhood epigenetics (PACE) consortium.

Pre-pregnancy maternal obesity is associated with adverse offspring outcomes at birth and later in life. Individual studies have shown that epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation could contribute. Within the Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics (PACE) Consortium, we meta-analysed the association between pre-pregnancy maternal BMI and methylation at over 450,000 sites in newborn blood DNA, across 19 cohorts (9,340 mother-newborn pairs).

The sex-shift in single disease and multimorbid asthma and rhinitis during puberty - a study by MeDALL.

Background: Cross-sectional studies suggested that allergy prevalence in childhood is higher in boys compared to girls, but it remains unclear whether this inequality changes after puberty. We examined the sex-specific prevalence of asthma and rhinitis as single and as multimorbid diseases before and after puberty onset in longitudinal cohort data.

Methods: In six European population-based birth cohorts of MeDALL, we assessed the outcomes: current rhinitis, current asthma, current allergic multimorbidity (ie, concurrent asthma and rhinitis), puberty status and allergic sensitization by specific serum antibodies (immunoglobulin E) against aero-allergens.

The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) score of allergic rhinitis using mobile technology correlates with quality of life: The MASK study.

Mobile technology has been used to appraise allergic rhinitis control, but more data are needed. To better assess the importance of mobile technologies in rhinitis control, the ARIA (Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma) score ranging from 0 to 4 of the Allergy Diary was compared with EQ-5D (EuroQuol) and WPAI-AS (Work Productivity and Activity Impairment in allergy) in 1288 users in 18 countries. This study showed that quality-of-life data (EQ-5D visual analogue scale and WPA-IS Question 9) are similar in users without rhinitis and in those with mild rhinitis (scores 0-2).

Body Mass Index Development and Asthma Throughout Childhood.

Several studies have found an association between overweight and asthma, yet the temporal relationship between their onsets remains unclear. We investigated the development of body mass index (BMI) from birth to adolescence among 2,818 children with and without asthma from a Swedish birth cohort study, the BAMSE (a Swedish acronym for "children, allergy, milieu, Stockholm, epidemiology") Project, during 1994-2013. Measured weight and height were available at 13 time points throughout childhood.

Genetic and epigenetic regulation of YKL-40 in childhood.

Background: Circulating levels of the chitinase-like protein YKL-40 are influenced by genetic variation in its encoding gene (chitinase 3-like 1 [CHI3L1]) and are increased in patients with several diseases, including asthma. Epigenetic regulation of circulating YKL-40 early in life is unknown.

Objective: We sought to determine (1) whether methylation levels at CHI3L1 CpG sites mediate the association of CHI3L1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with YKL-40 levels in the blood and (2) whether these biomarkers (CHI3L1 SNPs, methylation profiles, and YKL-40 levels) are associated with asthma in early childhood.

Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Serum Inflammatory Cytokines in Children.

Background: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution can lead to adverse health effects in children; however, underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood.

Objectives: We evaluated the effect of air pollution exposure during different time periods on mRNA expression as well as circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines in children.

Methods: We measured a panel of 10 inflammatory markers in peripheral blood samples from 670 8-y-old children in the Barn/Child, Allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, Epidemiology (BAMSE) birth cohort.

Lung function development after preterm birth in relation to severity of Bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a strong risk factor for respiratory morbidity in children born preterm. Our aims were to evaluate lung function in adolescents born preterm with and without a history of BPD, and to assess lung function change over time from school age.

Methods: Fifty-one individuals born in Stockholm, Sweden between gestational ages 24 to 31 weeks (23 neonatally diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) but not BPD, and 28 graded as mild (n = 17), moderate (n = 7) or severe (n = 4) BPD) were examined in adolescence (13-17 years of age) using spirometry, impulse oscillometry (IOS), plethysmography, and ergospirometry.

Rationale and design of the multiethnic Pharmacogenomics in Childhood Asthma consortium.

Aim: International collaboration is needed to enable large-scale pharmacogenomics studies in childhood asthma. Here, we describe the design of the Pharmacogenomics in Childhood Asthma (PiCA) consortium.

Materials & Methods: Investigators of each study participating in PiCA provided data on the study characteristics by answering an online questionnaire.

Recent advances in understanding lung function development.

Recent years have witnessed critical contributions to our understanding of the determinants and long-term implications of lung function development. In this article, we review studies that have contributed to advances in understanding lung function development and its critical importance for lung health into adult life. In particular, we have focused on early life determinants that include genetic factors, perinatal events, environmental exposures, lifestyle, infancy lower respiratory tract infections, and persistent asthma phenotypes.

Transfer of innovation on allergic rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity in the elderly (MACVIA-ARIA) - EIP on AHA Twinning Reference Site (GARD research demonstration project).

The overarching goals of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) are to enable European citizens to lead healthy, active and independent lives whilst ageing. The EIP on AHA includes 74 Reference Sites. The aim of this study was to transfer innovation from an app developed by the MACVIA-France EIP on AHA reference site (Allergy Diary) to other reference sites.

Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution on Lung Function in Children.

Lung function in early life has been shown to be an important predictor for peak lung function in adults and later decline. Reduced lung function per se is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. With this review, we aim to summarize the current epidemiological evidence on the effect of traffic-related air pollution on lung function in children and adolescents.

Neuropeptide S (NPS) variants modify the signaling and risk effects of NPS Receptor 1 (NPSR1) variants in asthma.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) close to the gain-of-function substitution, Asn(107)Ile (rs324981, A>T), in Neuropeptide S Receptor 1 (NPSR1) have been associated with asthma. Furthermore, a functional SNP (rs4751440, G>C) in Neuropeptide S (NPS) encodes a Val(6)Leu substitution on the mature peptide that results in reduced bioactivity. We sought to examine the effects of different combinations of these NPS and NPSR1 variants on downstream signaling and genetic risk of asthma.

Work productivity in rhinitis using cell phones: The MASK pilot study.

Allergic rhinitis often impairs social life and performance. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to use cell phone data to assess the impact on work productivity of uncontrolled rhinitis assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). A mobile phone app (Allergy Diary, Google Play Store and Apple App Store) collects data from daily visual analogue scales (VAS) for overall allergic symptoms (VAS-global measured), nasal (VAS-nasal), ocular (VAS-ocular) and asthma symptoms (VAS-asthma) as well as work (VAS-work).

Sensitization trajectories in childhood revealed by using a cluster analysis.

Background: Assessment of sensitization at a single time point during childhood provides limited clinical information. We hypothesized that sensitization develops as specific patterns with respect to age at debut, development over time, and involved allergens and that such patterns might be more biologically and clinically relevant.

Objective: We sought to explore latent patterns of sensitization during the first 6 years of life and investigate whether such patterns associate with the development of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema.

Anaphylactic Reactions to Novel Foods: Case Report of a Child With Severe Crocodile Meat Allergy.

Availability of "exotic" foods is steadily increasing. In this report, we describe the first case of anaphylaxis to crocodile meat. The patient was a 13-year-old boy with severe immunoglobulin E-mediated allergy to chicken meat.

Erratum to: Scaling up strategies of the chronic respiratory disease programme of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (Action Plan B3: Area 5).

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13601-016-0116-9.].