Clinical manifestations of cows' milk allergy in childhood. II. The diagnostic value of skin tests and RAST

In a study of cows' milk allergy (CMA) in infancy, 135 consecutive challenges were performed on children with a good clinical history of the disorder. Of these, only half of the patients were shown to have the disease. Highly atopic patients responded rapidly to small volumes of milk with acute urticaria, wheezing, stridor and eczema, whereas patients who were relatively non-atopic developed symptoms of eczema, bronchitis and wheezing over several hours or days. In a statistical evaluation of the diagnostic value of skin tests and RAST it was shown for the extracts used in this investigation, and for the population studied, all patients with SPT 4 had CMA. The results highlight the potential diagnostic value of SPT in the identification of children with some forms of CMA if standardized cows' milk allergen extracts can be prepared.     

Age-Dependent Effect of Ozone on Pulmonary Eicosanoid Metabolism in Rabbits and Rats

Age-Dependent Effect of Ozone on Pulmonary Eicosanoid Metabolismin Rabbits and Rats. GUNNISON, A. F., FINKELSTEIN, I., WEIDEMAN,P., SU, W.-Y., SOBO, M., AND SCHLESINGER, R. B. (1990). Fundam.Appl Toxicol. 15, 779–790. Acute exposures to ozone havepreviously been shown to cause quantitative changes in the spectrumof arachidonic acid (AA) metabolites in lung lavage fluid. Sinceage appears to be an important variable in the toxicity of inhaledozone, we investigated its effect on ozone-induced changes inpulmonary eicosanoid metabolism. Rats and rabbits ranging inage from neonates to young adults were exposed either to airor to 1 ppm ozone for 2 hr. Lung lavage fluid was collectedwithin 1 hr following exposure and analyzed for its contentof selected eicosanoids. In both species, there was a pronouncedeffect of age on ozone-induced pulmonary eicosanoid metabolism.Ozone-exposed animals at the youngest ages examined had severalfoldgreater amounts of two products of the cyclooxygenase pathway,prostaglandin E₂ (PGE₂) and prostaglandin F_2a (PGF_2a), thandid age-matched controls. This effect lessened and eventuallydisappeared as the animals grew toward adulthood. In rabbits,ozone also induced increases in 6-keto-prostaglandin F_1a andthromboxane B₂, but these changes were of lesser magnitude andevident only in the youngest rabbits exposed. There was no observedeffect of ozone on lung lavage content of leukothriene B₄. Indicesof nonspecific pulmonary damage, i.e., protein concentrationin lung lavage fluid and total number and viability of lavagedlung cells, were affected by ozone exposure, but not in an age-dependentmanner that correlated with changes in pulmonary eicosanoidmetabolism. In vitro ozone exposure of lung macrophages fromnaive rabbits of the same age range as those exposed in vivodemonstrated that ozone is capable of stimulating the elaborationof PGF_2a and especially PGE₂. However, the increase in lavagefluid PGE₂ and PGF_2a caused by ozone inhalation could not beattributed to macrophage metabolism conclusively since elaborationof PGE₂ and PGF_2a by cultured macrophages was not enhanced byprior in vivo ozone exposure. In an ancillary study it was shownthat 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (PGDH) activity inrabbit lung homogenates was not affected by prior exposure toozone, indicating that the increase in lung lavage fluid eicosanoidsthat occurred in these animals could not be explained by inhibitionof PGDH.     

Urinary and Serum Urea as Indicators of Protein Metabolism in Very Low Birthweight Infants Fed Varying Human Milk Protein Intakes

ABSTRACT. Urea concentrations in serum and urine were measured in 28 growing, very low birth weight, appropriate-for-gestational age infants fed varying human milk protein intakes (range 1.7 to 3.9 g/kg/day). We found a high correlation between serum urea values at the end of the study and mean protein intake ( r ₃=0.85, p <0.001) and between urinary urea concentrations in eight-hour urine collections and protein intake ( r ₃=0.81, p <0.001). All serum and urine urea values were below 1.6 and 18 mmol/l, respectively, at protein intakes less than 3 g/kg/day. Higher protein intakes caused higher serum and urinary urea concentrations. We also found a strong correlation between the individual serum and urinary urea values at the end of the study ( r ₃=0.90, p <0.001). The presented data are consistent with the growth data previously reported and indicate that inadequate or excessive protein intakes can be detected by measurement of urea concentrations in serum and/or urine. If urine urea samples alone can be used for estimating optimal protein intake, painful blood sampling procedures could be obviated.     

Definition of T cell epitopes within the 19 kDa carboxylterminal fragment of Plasmodium yoelii merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP119) and their role in immunity to malaria

MSP1₁₉ is one of the leading malaria vaccine candidates. However, the mechanism of protection is not clear. To determine whether MSP1₁₉-specific effector T cells can control parasitaemia, we analysed the specificity of T cells induced following immunization with recombinant forms of P. yoelii MSP1₁₉ and asked whether they could protect mice. There was no evidence that effector T cells were capable of protecting since: (1) immunization of mice with yMSP1₁₉, but not defined epitopes, was able to induce protection; and (2) long term MSP1₁₉-specific CD4⁺ T cell lines were incapable of adoptively transferring protection. In contrast, priming mice with the T cell epitopes resulted in a rapid anamnestic antibody response to MSP1₁₉ after either challenge with MSP1₁₉ or parasite. Thus, MSP1₁₉ contains multiple T cell epitopes but such epitopes are the targets of helper T cells for antibody response but not of identified effector T cells capable of controlling parasitaemia .     

Intestinal metaplasia and gastric carcinoma: A histological study of 198 gastrectomy specimens

One hundred and ninety-eight consecutive gastrectomy specimens (78 gastric carcinomas, 120 benign lesions) were reviewed and examined to study the relation between intestinal metaplasia (IM) and gastric carcinomas (GC). IM was classified as complete (type I) and incomplete (types II and III) depending on the types of mucin secreted. Only type III IM was found to be significantly associated with GC ( P = 0.0005) when GC was treated as a group in contrast to non-neoplastic lesions. On subdivsion into different types of GC, such association was only found in the intestinal type but not the diffuse type. The significance of the association between type III IM and the intestinal type GC is discussed. In addition, dysplasia was significantly associated with GC and not with benign lesions ( P < 0.005).     

Morphology of the human larynx

Morphology of the human larynx. II. The subglottis The macroscopic staining method was used to display and measure the epithelium of the human subglottic space. Small islands of squamous metaplasia were found in about 40% of the non-smoking, non-bronchitic urban population. There was no age or sex difference, although a highly significant decrease in size of the subglottic space was found in women throughout life.     

Multiple vascular malformation in the 'blue rubber bleb naevus' syndrome: a case with aneurysm of vein of Galen and vascular lesions suggesting a link to the Weber–Osler–Rendu syndrome

A case of Bean's syndrome is reported in which a wide variety of vascular malformations are illustrated. Among these were multiple arterio-venous malformations including a so-called vein of Galen aneurysm. A comparison of this case with those in the literature suggests that the pathology in patients with Bean's syndrome may be more varied than heretofore recognized, and that an overlap between this syndrome and the Osler–Weber–Rendu syndrome may exist.