Ewa Czarnobilska

Contact hypersensitivity and allergic contact dermatitis among school children and teenagers with eczema

Background:  Patch testing is an essential procedure in the investigation of eczema in children.

The most important contact sensitizers in Polish children and adolescents with atopy and chronic recurrent eczema as detected with the extended European Baseline Series

To cite this article: Czarnobilska E, Obtulowicz K, Dyga W, Spiewak R. The most important contact sensitizers in Polish children and adolescents with atopy and chronic recurrent eczema as detected with the extended European Baseline Series. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2011; 22:252–256.

A half of schoolchildren with 'ISAAC eczema' are ill with allergic contact dermatitis

Background  Similarity in clinical symptoms between atopic eczema (AE) and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) may lead to misdiagnoses in both clinical practice and epidemiological studies. As patch testing for contact allergy does not seem popular among paediatric allergists, the resulting bias leads mainly to under diagnosing of ACD and over diagnosing of AE in children and adolescents.

Not all that looks like eczema is atopic eczema

the case of a skin rash in a patient with H1N1 infection that proved to be the result of CMV reactivation. We think that, because of a spontaneous decline of immunosurveillance, the child developed first PR (with the herald patch escaping parents’ early detection, as is very often the case) and, later on and independently, the H1N1 infection. Finally, we learnt that H1N1 virus does not infect ‘epithelial cells’. We are afraid that in typing, somebody probably confused ‘epithelial’ with ‘epidermal’. Otherwise, how could H1N1 virus cause respiratory symptoms if the upper respiratory tract were not infected?

Antibody reactivity in patients with IgE-mediated wheat allergy to various subunits and fractions of gluten and non-gluten proteins from ω-gliadin-free wheat genotypes

[b]Abstract Introduction and objective[/b]. Gluten proteins (gliadins and glutenins) are polymorphic wheat storage proteins of allergenic properties. Significant differences in chemical composition between both protein groups allow to expect highly specific immunological response of individual subunits and fractions in reactions with IgE sera of people allergic to wheat. The aim of these studies was to identify and characterize the most allergenic gluten proteins (GP) and nongluten proteins (NGP) occurred in two closely related wheat hybrid genotypes. [b]Materials and method.[/b] 3xC and 3xN wheat hybrids, which differ strongly in regard of gliadin composition, were analyzed. Seven people manifesting different symptoms of wheat allergy donated sera for the experiment. The technique of immunoblotting after SDS-PAGE was used for identification of allergenic subunits and fractions among GP and NGP. Immunologically active protein bands were visualized by chemiluminescence. [b]Results[/b]. Great variation of immunodetection spectra was observed. Results of immunoblotting showed LMW glutenins to be of highest, gliadins of medium, while NGP of lowest allergenicity for selected patients. The 43-kDa and 47-kDa LMW glutenin subunits, 40-kDa and 43-kDa γ-gliadin fractions and 49-kDa NGP can be considered as the most immunoreactive among all protein bands [b]separated by SDS-PAGE. CONCLUSION [/b] The observed differentiation of immunodetection spectra allows to model highly specific IgE-binding profiles of allergenic wheat proteins attributed to individual patients with symptoms of gluten intolerance. Highly immunoreactive subunits and fractions among GP and NGP were identified. The observed immunoreactivity of 49 kDa NGP is worth to emphasize, as it has never been reported as wheat allergenic protein before.

Optimization of the basophil activation test in the diagnosis and qualification for treatment by means of allergen-specific immunotherapy in children with respiratory allergy to house dust mites

Diagnosis of diseases, especially qualification for treatment should be based on the methods properly optimized in order to minimize the risk of incorrect qualification to unnecessary treatments, or neglecting treatment wherever it is needed. Among possible alternatives for routine allergy diagnostic tests, hopeful mentions can be found of the basophil activation test (BAT), which replicates in vitro reactions that occur in the body during basophil response to allergens, thus giving a chance for forecasting the severity of allergic reaction. Aim The aim of the study was to optimize the basophil activation test in the detection of house dust mite allergy in Polish children with allergic respiratory diseases. Patients and methods The study involved 32 patients, with symptoms of asthma or allergic rhinitis, qualified for sIT with the D pteronyssinus allergen by an experienced pediatric allergist. The control group consisted of an equal number of sex- and agematched children with the same clinical diagnoses, yet sensitized to allergens other than D. pteronyssinus .I n all patients, the BAT test was performed with five dilutions of D. pteronyssinus allergen. In order to detect possible cross-reactivity, BAT was also carried out with one dilution of D. farinae. The results were analyzed by the means of ROC. Results The highest diagnostic efficiency in the analyzed population was yielded by the cut-off of 9.76% of activated basophils after activation with a single allergen concentration of 2.25 ng/ml (sensitivity 90,63%, specificity 100%). The computed value differed significantly from the cut-off value of 15% proposed by the manufacturer of the test. Qualification of the patients with the use of the proposed protocol and cut-off value did not differ from the “gold standard”, i.e. qualification by the physician, while adoption of the parameters proposed by the manufacturer would result in a significant difference in this regard. Conclusions

The Estimation of Reliability in the Preventive Examination of Allergic Diseases with Knowledge Discovery Methods

The paper concerns the problem of analyzing the reliability of preventive examination of allergic diseases. The authors propose an approach based on the employment knowledge discovery methods to examine data obtained from a questionnaire and tests. As a result of the examination, the association rule model is built. The model describes the relations between the survey answers and the medical test results. The evaluation of the relations provides the answers for the quality and the accuracy of the survey. The Predictive Model Markup Language (PMML) and XQuery language are involved to facilitate an environment for the systematic examination of complex mining models. In the final part of the paper, the preliminary results of experiments are presented.