Publications by authors named "Seiko Hirai"

Introduction: Similar to other countries, in Japan, the demand for primary care pediatricians has increased due to the surge in pediatric allergic diseases, and with the change in a paradigm shift regarding the prevention of pediatric allergic disease in the last 20 years, they have had an increased need for retraining. To offer better support to children and their caregivers, educational needs for bridging the gap between knowledge and practice must be met. Therefore, we developed an educational program including practical and interactive approaches for pediatricians in 2012.

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Background: The health-related quality of life (HRQL) of people with food allergies should be evaluated to provide high-quality medical care. Currently, there is no available easy-to-use and reliable instrument for assessing HRQL clinically in Japan.

Methods: The Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire 10 (FAQLQ10) in English was translated into Japanese, and this was referred to as the Japanese version of the Food Allergy Quality of Life Questionnaire 10 (FAQLQ10-J).

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers explored the effectiveness of slow low-dose oral immunotherapy (SLOIT) for treating cow's milk (CM) allergy, specifically in children under 4 years old who start treatment early.
  • They created a predictive model using data from 120 children to assess the likelihood of allergy remission after 3 years, evaluating factors like age and specific blood markers.
  • The model demonstrated strong accuracy in predicting remission rates, showing good performance in both internal and external validation tests, indicating its potential to enhance management of CM allergy in young kids.
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Background: The association between pet exposure in infancy, early childhood eczema, and FLG mutations remains unclear.

Methods: This was a birth cohort study performed in Tokyo, Japan. The primary outcome was current eczema based on questionnaire responses collected repeatedly from birth to 5 years of age.

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Background: Avoidance of suspect drugs based solely on a history of drug allergy is detrimental to disease outcomes. Many antimicrobial allergy labels are not usually true allergy. Some studies have demonstrated that antimicrobial allergy assessments can be safely performed on pregnant women.

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Inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO) refers to respiratory disorders caused by airflow limitation in the larynx, including vocal cord dysfunction, and may sometimes be misdiagnosed as bronchial asthma (BA). Here, we report the case of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with BA in infancy. He was referred to our Allergy Center and was taking a high dose of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) due to frequent coughing from the age of 10 years and persistent coughing following COVID-19 infection at the age of 11.

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Background: The relationship between serum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and the clinical features of patients with Kawasaki disease (KD) has been the subject of research. Recent studies have revealed that serum NT-proBNP levels vary with age. We therefore aimed to determine the utility of age-stratified cut-off values for NT-proBNP in predicting coronary artery lesions (CALs) in patients with KD.

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The association between pollen food allergy syndrome (PFAS) and allergic march remains unclear. In this prospective cohort study of the general population in Tokyo (T-Child Study), we found that sensitization to Cry j 1 and Fel d 1 at ages 5 and 9 years was associated with an increased risk of PFAS at 13 years old (at 5 years, Cry j 1: adjusted odds ratio aOR, 2.74; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.

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