Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift
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Wien Med Wochenschr · Sep 2015
Review[Diagnostics and management of food allergies in childhood and adolescence].
Food allergies can result in life-threatening reactions and diminish quality of life. The prevalence of food allergies is increasing with large regional variability. ⋯ Treatment of food allergy involves mainly strict avoidance of the trigger food. Medications help to manage symptoms of disease, but currently, there is no cure for food allergy.
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Wien Med Wochenschr · May 2015
Case ReportsSevere cyanide poisoning from an alternative medicine treatment with amygdalin and apricot kernels in a 4-year-old child.
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widespread in children with cancer and is poorly regulated. ⋯ Cyanide poisoning can be the cause of severe encephalopathy in children receiving CAM treatment with substances containing cyanogenic glycosides.
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Biologics have become indispensable in the last decade in the treatment of the more common rheumatic diseases. For treating systemic lupus erythematodes (SLE), B-cell depletion, albeit off-label, has been a well-accepted strategy in severe and refractory disease. Unexpectedly, however, the results of the first randomized controlled rituximab trials in SLE were negative. ⋯ In 2012, with the approval of belimumab, SLE finally entered the era of approved biological therapies. The anti-Blys/BAFF antibody belimumab showed prevention of SLE flares, glucocorticoid sparing, and significant improvement in the quality of life of SLE patients, in part by drastically reducing immune complex mediated fatigue. Positive reports on further targeting approaches give hope that additional biological agents will be available for SLE therapy soon.
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Wien Med Wochenschr · Jul 2014
ReviewSarcoidosis vs. Sarcoid-like reactions: The Two Sides of the same Coin?
Differentiating between sarcoidosis as an autonomous disease and sarcoid-like reactions requires considerable efforts. The epithelioid cell granuloma is not equivalent to sarcoidosis because it may be identified in a number of infectious and noninfectious disorders, including neoplastic diseases. At the current state of knowledge, accurate distinction between different causes of epithelioid cell granulomas is in many cases not possible. ⋯ An update on the inclusion criteria from the ATS/ERS/WASOG (American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society/World Association of Sarcoidosis and other Granulomatous Disorders) statement (which at the current state of knowledge seems to be ineffective) for the diagnosis of sarcoidosis is also suggested. In conclusion, molecular mimicry may be seen as the main pathogenic generator not only of sarcoidosis but also of sarcoid-like reactions. A completely new and exact definition of the notion of or the sarcoidosis disease itself will be possible only after 1. defining the genetic risk for the development of sarcoidosis as an autonomous disease and supplementing the sarcoidosis consensus of ATS/ERS/WASOG from 1999 with this important information, and 2. defining the notion of a sarcoid-like reaction and its subforms.