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Allergen extracts have been used for diagnosis and treatment of allergy for around 100 years. During the second half of 20th century, the notion increasingly gained foothold that accurate standardization of such extracts is of great importance for improvement of their quality. As a consequence, manufacturers have implemented extensive protocols for standardization and quality control. These protocols have overall IgE-binding potencies as their focus. Unfortunately, each company is using their own in-house reference materials and their own unique units to express potencies. This does not facilitate comparison of different products. During the last decades, most major allergens of relevant allergen sources have been identified and it has been established that effective immunotherapy requires certain minimum quantities of these allergens to be present in the administered maintenance dose. Therefore, the idea developed to introduce major allergens measurements into standardization protocols. Such protocols based on mass units of major allergen, quantify the active ingredients of the treatment and will at the same time allow comparison of competitor products. In 2001, an EU funded project, the CREATE project, was started to support introduction of major allergen based standardization. The aim of the project was to evaluate the use of recombinant allergens as reference materials and of ELISA assays for major allergen measurements. This paper gives an overview of the achievements of the CREATE project.

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BACKGROUND: Birch pollen-specific immunotherapy (SIT) decreases allergy to foods containing birch pollen-homologous allergens. Cross-reactivity was also observed between plane tree pollen and some vegetable foods. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the outgrowing of food allergy by patients suffering from vegetable food allergy associated with plane tree pollinosis (rhinoconjunctivitis and/or asthma) during plane tree pollen SIT. METHODS: An observational and prospective study was conducted in 16 adult patients suffering from vegetable food allergy (hazelnut, walnut, lettuce, peach and cherry) and from plane tree pollinosis receiving plane tree pollen SIT for 1 year. Open oral challenges with the implicated food were performed before and after SIT. Blood samples were drawn for measurement of pollen- and food-specific IgE and IgG4 before and after treatment. RESULTS: Plane tree SIT resulted in a significant decrease in food allergy, since the mean food quantity provoking objective symptoms increased from 2.19 to 13.74 g (p < 0.05), and 6 of the 11 patients tolerated the highest level (25 g) of the challenged food after plane tree SIT. Laboratory data also showed a decrease in IgE levels and an increase in IgG4 levels after immunotherapy. CONCLUSION: SIT with plane tree pollen has a positive impact on food allergy in plane tree pollen-allergic subjects.

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Although furry animals are known sources of respiratory allergy, scaly animals are assumed not to be allergenic. Exotic animals such as iguanas are becoming increasingly common pets. Nevertheless, these animals are not suspected to be allergenic. We present the case of a 42-year-old woman suffering from allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma caused by a pet iguana. Clear IgE-sensitization and respiratory allergy to iguana scales is demonstrated, suggesting that scaly pets should be taken into account as possible allergenic sources.

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Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a genetic disorder characterized by acute episodes of fever with some combination of severe abdominal pain, pleurisy, arthritis, and skin rash. The case of a patient with recurrent urticaria referred for study of drug allergy is presented. After allergy had been ruled out, the urticaria was attributed to previously undiagnosed symptoms of an underlying systemic disease: FME. Urticaria is the least frequent cutaneous manifestation of this disease, and genetic analysis was required to confirm the diagnosis.

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BACKGROUND: In Mediterranean areas, oral allergy syndrome (OAS) occurs independently of an associated birch pollinosis; moreover, on occasions it presents with no other associated pollinosis. The aim of this study was to assess the possible association of OAS with Platanus acerifolia pollinosis. METHODS: We evaluated consecutive patients seen for pollinosis in an allergy department. Seven hundred and twenty patients were selected on the basis of seasonal or perennial rhinitis, or asthma, or both. Respiratory and food allergies were studied in all patients. Clinical history was recorded and examinations and skin prick tests were performed with a battery of available common inhalant allergens and plant-derived food allergens. Specific IgE levels to P. acerifolia pollen extract and food allergens tested were measured. Molecular masses of the IgE-binding proteins and cross-reactivity among the P. acerifolia pollen and different food extracts were also determined. RESULTS: Of the 720 patients evaluated, 61 (8.48%) were sensitized to P. acerifolia pollen. Food allergy was observed in 32 (52.45%) of the 61 patients sensitized to P. acerifolia pollen. Food allergens most frequently implicated were hazelnuts, peach, apple, peanuts, maize, chickpea and lettuce. Enzyme allergosorbent (EAST)-inhibition showed high inhibition values when P. acerifolia pollen extract was used as free phase. On the contrary low inhibition was observed when plant-derived food allergens were used as free phase and P. acerifolia pollen extract as solid phase. CONCLUSIONS: Cross-reactivity was observed among P. acerifolia pollen and plant-derived foods. OAS in these patients may have been caused by primary respiratory sensitization.

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Captopril, enalapril, and lisinopril are angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors widely prescribed for hypertension and heart failure. Cutaneous side effects of captopril include angio-edema, anaphylactoid reactions, maculopapular eruptions, pitiryasis rosea-like rash, toxic erythema, and exfoliative dermatitis. Some of the immunological captopril-induced cutaneous adverse reactions have been diagnosed in recent years by patch tests. A case of a cutaneous immune adverse reaction to captopril with tolerance to enalapril and lisinopril demonstrated both by patch tests and double-blind challenge tests is reported for the first time. A 71-year-old nonatopic woman suffered a generalized pruriginous maculopapular rash. Two months earlier, she had started oral treatment with captopril 50 mg t.i.d and glibenclamide 5 mg daily. After the rash appeared, she stopped both drugs and the reaction cleared. A skin biopsy from one of the lesions showed perivascular lymphocytic infiltrate of the upper dermis. Skin prick tests with captopril and glibenclamide and patch tests with enalapril, lisinopril, and glibenclamide at 1% and 10% pet., and with mercaptobenzothiazole (a sulfhydryl group-containing chemical at 1% pet were negative. Only patch tests with captopril at 1% and 10% concentrations were positive at 48 h. Oral double-blind challenge tests with glibenclamide, enalapril, lisinopril, and placebo showed good tolerance. The patient was advised to avoid only captopril. Because captopril is the only ACE inhibitor containing a sulfhydryl group and has occasionally been implicated in complex immunological diseases, this chemical group has been considered the culprit of allergic reactions to captopril. The lack of cross-reactivity between captopril, enalapril, and benazepril has been demonstrated in a few patients by patch tests. In our patient, patch tests identified captopril as the drug responsible for a probably immune adverse reaction not due to the sulfhydryl group. Patch tests are useful and safe in the diagnostic work-up of allergic drug reactions and in studies of cross-sensitivity among ACE inhibitors.

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Durante años el tracto gastrointestinal ha resultado ser un problema para la ecografía, puesto que la presencia intraluminal de líquido y gas creaban artefactos o impedían la visualización de muchas de las estructuras anatómicas abdominales. No obstante, actualmente la ecografía se aplica con éxito en el estudio de múltiples procesos patológicos que afectan al tubo digestivo, tanto en pacientes adultos como en edad pediátrica.Hemos dividido, a efectos didácticos, las aplicaciones de la ecografía en los problemas más comunes en la edad adulta (enfermedades neoplásicas, inflamatorias, infecciosas y una miscelánea). Finalmente veremos que la ecografía realmente es una técnica muy sensible para las lesiones del tubo digestivo, pero muy poco específica, con lo cual muchas veces será necesario biopsiar la lesión para conocer el diagnóstico. En determinadas situaciones la lesión no está al alcance del endoscopio y entonces la ecografía puede usarse como guía para dirigir la biopsia al segmento afecto (AU)

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Bouveret's syndrome is an unusual presentation of gallstone ileus, due to duodenal obstruction. It is produced by the migration of biliary calculus through a cholecystogastric or cholecystoduodenal fistula. We present 3 new cases of Bouveret's syndrome, and the clinical and radiological findings on different imaging procedures (plain abdominal radiography, barium studies, ultrasonography and computed tomography). On the basis of these cases, we discuss the diagnostic and possibly therapeutic merits of digestive endoscopy and about the different surgical procedures.

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