IgE to cyclophilins in pollen-allergic children: Epidemiologic, clinical, and diagnostic relevance of a neglected panallergen.

Background: Cyclophilins are ubiquitous panallergens whose epidemiologic, diagnostic, and clinical relevance is largely unknown and whose sensitization is rarely examined in routine allergy practice.

Objective: We investigated the epidemiologic, diagnostic, and clinical relevance of cyclophilins in seasonal allergic rhinitis and its comorbidities.

Methods: We examined a random sample of 253 (25%) of 1263 Italian children with seasonal allergic rhinitis from the Panallergens in Pediatrics (PAN-PED) cohort with characterized disease phenotypes.

IgE to cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCD) in childhood: Prevalence, risk factors, putative origins.

Background: IgE antibodies to cross-reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCD) are usually clinically irrelevant but they can be a cause of false positive outcomes of allergen-specific IgE tests in vitro. Their prevalence and levels have been so far cross-sectionally examined among adult allergic patients and much less is known about their origins and relevance in childhood.

Methods: We examined CCD with a cross-sectional approach in 1263 Italian pollen allergic children (Panallergen in Paediatrics, PAN-PED), as well as with a longitudinal approach in 612 German children (Multicenter Allergy Study, MAS), whose cutaneous and IgE sensitization profile to a broad panel of allergen extracts and molecules was already known.

IgE-Mediated and Non-IgE-Mediated Fish Allergy in Pediatric Age: A Holistic Approach-A Consensus by Diagnostic Commission of the Italian Society of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

Fish is one of the "big nine" foods triggering allergic reactions. For this reason, fish allergens must be accurately specified on food labels. Fish allergy affects less than 1% of the world population, but a higher prevalence is observed in pediatric cohorts, up to 7%.

Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Children: A Forgotten Disease?

Even today, tuberculosis in childhood is a disease that is often undiagnosed and undertreated. In the absence of therapy with antituberculosis drugs, children in the first years of life have a high degree of severe forms and mortality. In these children, symptoms are often not very specific and can easily be confused with other diseases of bacterial, viral or fungal etiology, making diagnosis more difficult.

Phenotypes and Endotypes of Peach Allergy: What Is New?

Peach allergy is emerging as a common type of fresh-fruit allergy in Europe, especially in the Mediterranean area. The clinical manifestations of peach allergy tend to have a peculiar geographical distribution and can range from mild oral symptoms to anaphylaxis, depending on the allergic sensitization profile. The peach allergen Pru p 7, also known as peamaclein, has recently been identified as a marker of peach allergy severity and as being responsible for peculiar clinical features in areas with high exposure to cypress pollen.

The Role of Gut and Lung Microbiota in Susceptibility to Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is one of the most common infectious diseases and infectious causes of death worldwide. Over the last decades, significant research effort has been directed towards defining the understanding of the pathogenesis of tuberculosis to improve diagnosis and therapeutic options. Emerging scientific evidence indicates a possible role of the human microbiota in the pathophysiology of tuberculosis, response to therapy, clinical outcomes, and post-treatment outcomes.

Role of in vitro testing in food allergy.

Oral food challenges remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of food allergy. Nevertheless, the allergy workup is based on the presence of a clinical history, which is evocative of an immune-allergic reaction, and the first assessment is usually the performance of skin prick tests. Based on these results, allergists are used to evaluate the presence of serum-specific IgE, which are today the most commonly prescribed in vitro test for the evaluation of a possible food allergy.

SIAIP position paper: provocation challenge to antibiotics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in children.

Drug hypersensitivity reactions (DHRs) in childhood are mainly caused by betalactam or non-betalactam antibiotics, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Laboratory tests for identifying children who are allergic to drugs have low diagnostic accuracy and predictive value. The gold standard to diagnose DHR is represented by the drug provocation test (DPT), that aims of ascertaining the causative role of an allergen and evaluating the tolerance to the suspected drug.

Prevalence and Clinical Relevance of IgE Sensitization to Profilin in Childhood: A Multicenter Study.

Background: Little is known about the prevalence and clinical relevance of hypersensitivity to the plant panallergen profilin in children.

Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate prevalence, risk factors and clinical relevance of profilin sensitization in a large cohort of Italian children of different ages living in different geographic areas.

Methods: Children with pollen allergy enrolled by 16 pediatric outpatient clinics sited in three main geographic areas of Italy were studied.

The effect of component-resolved diagnosis on specific immunotherapy prescription in children with hay fever.

Background: Sensitization to profilins and other cross-reacting molecules might hinder proper specific immunotherapy (SIT) prescription in polysensitized patients with pollen-related allergic rhinitis (AR). In these patients, component-resolved diagnosis (CRD) might modify SIT prescription by improving the identification of the disease-eliciting pollen sources.

Objectives: We sought to measure the effect of CRD on SIT prescription in children with pollen-related AR.

Pollen-induced allergic rhinitis in 1360 Italian children: comorbidities and determinants of severity.

Background: Pollen-induced allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (AR) is highly prevalent and rapidly evolving during childhood. General practitioners may not be fully aware of the nature and severity of symptoms experienced by patients and might underestimate the prevalence of moderate or severe disease. Thus, the relevance of early diagnosis and intervention may be overlooked.

Environmental risk factors and lung diseases in children: from guidelines to health effects.

During the last decades research all over the world has highlighted the deleterious effects of outdoor and indoor pollution on respiratory health of adults and children. The World Health Organization (WHO) "Air quality guidelines for Europe" played a fundamental role in providing information and guidance to authorities involved in the air pollution field and they are considered the key source on which the European Commission's directive on air quality is based. Children appear to be most vulnerable to the harmful effects of outdoor pollutants, which can cause both acute exacerbations, as well as chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases.

Treatment of disorders characterized by reversible airway obstruction in childhood: are anti-cholinergic agents the answer?

Release of acetylcholine from parasympathetic nerves in the airways activates postjunctional muscarinic receptors present on smooth muscle, submucosal glands and blood vessels. This triggers bronchoconstriction, muscle hypertrophy, mucus secretion, and vasodilatation, respectively. The release of acetylcholine from parasympathetic nerves in lungs is induced by a variety of stimuli and downregulated by the inhibitory activity of neuronal M2 muscarinic receptors via a feedback mechanism.

Indoor exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and dampness: respiratory symptoms in Sardinian children--DRIAS study.

Indoor exposures at home, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and mould/dampness adversely affect respiratory health of children. Disturbi Respiratori nell'Infanzia e Ambiente in Sardegna (DRIAS) (Respiratory Symptoms in children and the Environment in Sardegna, Italy) aims at relating the prevalence of respiratory and allergic symptoms to indoor exposures in Sardinian children. DRIAS, a cross-sectional investigation of respiratory symptoms/diseases, used a modified version of ISAAC questionnaire, included 4122 children attending 29 primary schools in the school year 2004-2005.

IRAK-M is involved in the pathogenesis of early-onset persistent asthma.

Asthma is a multifactorial disease influenced by genetic and environmental factors. In the past decade, several loci and >100 genes have been found to be associated with the disease in at least one population. Among these loci, region 12q13-24 has been implicated in asthma etiology in multiple populations, suggesting that it harbors one or more asthma susceptibility genes.

Measurement of body surface area in atopic dermatitis using specific PC software (ScoradCard).

In skin diseases, evaluation of involved surface area is a crucial factor in grading the degree of severity. We examined the reliability of body surface area assessment and relative inter-observer and intra-observer variability using new software (ScoraCard), specifically designed to evaluate automatically the extension of the involved area in the SCORAD index. Twenty pediatricians, untrained in the evaluation of skin disease, estimated the percentage of surface area involved in photo-tests of two children with artificial well-delimited lesions, at first by sight and then through software.