J Invest Allerg Clin
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J Invest Allerg Clin · Jan 2012
Diagnosis of patients with immediate hypersensitivity to beta-lactams using retest.
beta-Lactams are the drugs most frequently involved in hypersensitivity reactions mediated by immunoglobulin (Ig) E. ⋯ These results indicate that a diagnostic protocol based on the combination of skin testing and in vitro determination of specific IgE antibodies plus, if required, drug provocation testing is an appropriate procedure for evaluating immediate hypersensitivity reactions to beta-lactams. Because the sensitivity of skin testing and in vitro IgE assays is not optimal and a considerable proportion of patients are tolerant, drug provocation tests are necessary to achieve the diagnosis or confirm tolerance. A large percentage of patients (23%) were diagnosed using retest.
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J Invest Allerg Clin · Jan 2012
Lack of association of programmed cell death 1 gene (PDCD1) polymorphisms with susceptibility to chronic urticaria in patients with positive autologous serum skin test.
Autoimmune mechanisms play an important role in the pathophysiology of chronic urticaria (CU), and the autologous serum skin test (ASST) helps to identify patients with autoreactive CU. One of the factors involved in autoreactive mechanisms is the cell surface receptor programmed death-1 which is encoded by the programmed cell death 1 gene (PDCD1). ⋯ PD1.3 and PD1.5 polymorphisms were not proven to be implicated in susceptibility to ASST-positive CU in the Polish population. A more comprehensive analysis of the 2q33-2q37 genomic region might reveal whether variants of 1 or more of the genes in this region are involved in susceptibility to CU.