Articles

Tiotropium in asthma: back to the future of anticholinergic treatment

Asthma is among the most common chronic diseases worldwide; however, despite progresses in the understanding of the patho-physiological mechanisms and advances in the development of new therapeutic options and...

Authors: Matteo Bonini and Nicola Scichilone

Selecting optimal second-generation antihistamines for allergic rhinitis and urticaria in Asia

Allergic diseases are on the rise in many parts of the world, including the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region. Second-generation antihistamines are the first-line treatment option in the management of allergic rhinit...

Authors: Marysia Tiongco Recto, Ma. Teresita Gabriel, Kanokvalai Kulthanan, Pongsakorn Tantilipikorn, Derrick Chen-Wee Aw, Tak Hong Lee, Ch’ng Chin Chwen, Somasundran Mutusamy, Nguyen Trong Hao, Vo Thanh Quang and Giorgio Walter Canonica

High frequency of IgE sensitization towards kiwi seed storage proteins among peanut allergic individuals also reporting allergy to kiwi

IgE sensitization to storage proteins from nuts and seed is often related to severe allergic symptoms. There is a risk of immunological IgE cross-reactivity between storage proteins from different species. The...

Authors: Jenny van Odijk, Sigrid Sjölander, Peter Brostedt, Magnus P. Borres and Hillevi Englund

How to fit allergen immunotherapy in the elderly

Asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) and atopic dermatitis are very common in young people, but in the latest decades it was increasingly recognized that also individuals of higher ages, including the population ove...

Authors: Erminia Ridolo, Anti Rogkakou, Maria Teresa Ventura, Irene Martignago, Cristoforo Incorvaia, Gabriele Di Lorenzo and Giovanni Passalacqua

Tolerated drugs in subjects with severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) induced by anticonvulsants and review of the literature

Anticonvulsant hypersensitivity syndrome represents a rare but potentially fatal kind of adverse drug reaction. This clinical picture often hampers the flexibility with which alternative anticonvulsants or eve...

Authors: Fabrizio De Luca, Laura Michelina Losappio, Corrado Mirone, Jan Walter Schroeder, Antonella Citterio, Maria Gloria Aversano, Joseph Scibilia and Elide Anna Pastorello

A survey on the perception of allergy specialists about the reimbursed grass pollen tablets for seasonal allergic rhinitis in Italy

Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is a feasible option to classical subcutaneous immunotherapy to treat respiratory allergy and is increasingly prescribed in Europe. However, the lack of reimbursement may limit ...

Authors: Ilaria Massaro, Oliviero Rossi, Cristoforo Incorvaia and Carlo Lombardi

Anticonvulsant hypersensitivity syndrome after phenytoin administration in an adolescent patient: a case report and review of literature

Hypersensitivity is a rare adverse drug reaction (ADR) associated with anti-epileptic medications. Phenytoin is one of the commonly used drugs for treatment of epilepsy that encounters a hypersensitivity react...

Authors: Malik Ghannam, Shaden Mansour, Aya Nabulsi and Qusay Abdoh

Preventive actions of allergen immunotherapy: the facts and the effects in search of evidence

Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) is the only treatment that works on the causes of allergy. Available AIT nowadays are subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) for allergic rhinitis an...

Authors: Irene Martignago, Cristoforo Incorvaia and Erminia Ridolo

Association between HMGB1 and asthma: a literature review

Recently, some studies demonstrated that HMGB1, as proinflammatory mediator belonging to the alarmin family, has a key role in different acute and chronic immune disorders. Asthma is a complex disease characte...

Authors: Egidio Imbalzano, Sebastiano Quartuccio, Eleonora Di Salvo, Teresa Crea, Marco Casciaro and Sebastiano Gangemi

Asthma management among allergists in Italy: results from a survey

In Europe more than 50% of asthmatic treated patients have not well-controlled asthma. Asthma affects about 2.5 million of patients in Italy.

Authors: M. S. Magnoni, M. Caminati, G. W. Canonica, F. Arpinelli, A. Rizzi and G. Senna

The soft computing-based approach to investigate allergic diseases: a systematic review

Early recognition of inflammatory markers and their relation to asthma, adverse drug reactions, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis and other allergic diseases is an important goal in allergy. The vast majori...

Authors: Gennaro Tartarisco, Alessandro Tonacci, Paola Lucia Minciullo, Lucia Billeci, Giovanni Pioggia, Cristoforo Incorvaia and Sebastiano Gangemi

SANI-Severe Asthma Network in Italy: a way forward to monitor severe asthma

Even if severe asthma (SA) accounts for 5–10% of all cases of the disease, it is currently a crucial unmet need, owing its difficult clinical management and its high social costs. For this reason several netwo...

Authors: G. Senna, M. Guerriero, P. L. Paggiaro, F. Blasi, M. Caminati, E. Heffler, M. Latorre and G. W. Canonica

Hypersensitivity reactions due to black henna tattoos and their components: are the clinical pictures related to the immune pathomechanism?

Hypersensitivity to para-phenylenediamine (PPD) and related compounds induced by temporary black henna tattoos has become a serious health problem worldwide. Different patterns of sensitization with various cl...

Authors: Gianfranco Calogiuri, Elisabetta Di Leo, Lavjay Butani, Stefano Pizzimenti, Cristoforo Incorvaia, Luigi Macchia and Eustachio Nettis

Effects of specific allergen immunotherapy on biological markers and clinical parameters in asthmatic children: a controlled-real life study

Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) is the only treatment able to change the natural course of allergic diseases. We aimed at investigating the clinical efficacy of SLITOR (Serbian registered vaccine for sub...

Authors: I. Djuric-Filipovic, Marco Caminati, D. Filipovic, C. Salvottini and Z. Zivkovic

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis: a complex lung disease

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), also called extrinsic allergic alveolitis, is a respiratory syndrome involving the lung parenchyma and specifically the alveoli, terminal bronchioli, and alveolar interstitiu...

Authors: Gian Galeazzo Riario Sforza and Androula Marinou

Pharmacoeconomics of sublingual immunotherapy with the 5-grass pollen tablets for seasonal allergic rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis has a very high burden regarding both direct and indirect costs. This makes essential in the management of AR to reduce the clinical severity of the disease and thus to lessen its costs. This...

Authors: Carlo Lombardi, Valerie Melli, Cristoforo Incorvaia and Erminia Ridolo

Sensitization to secretoglobin and lipocalins in a group of young children with risk of developing respiratory allergy

Multiple sensitizations in early age have been reported to be a risk for development of asthma. This study evaluates the emergence and evolution of IgE to aeroallergens among a cohort of children with physicia...

Authors: Mizuho Nagao, Magnus P. Borres, Mayumi Sugimoto, Carl Johan Petersson, Satoshi Nakayama, Yu Kuwabara, Sawako Masuda, Patrik Dykiel and Takao Fujisawa

Avoiding misdiagnosis in patients with dyspnea and wheezing: a case report illustrating the clinical implications of fixation error

Bronchial asthma is a heterogeneous respiratory condition which can be mimicked by a wide range of pathologies including upper airways stenosis. The accurate diagnosis of asthma, as with other conditions, may ...

Authors: Fabiano Di Marco, Giuseppe Francesco Sferrazza Papa, Dejan Radovanovic and Pierachille Santus

Allergic diseases in the elderly: biological characteristics and main immunological and non-immunological mechanisms

Life expectancy and the number of elderly people are progressively increasing around the world. Together with other pathologies, allergic diseases also show an increasing incidence in geriatric age. This is pa...

Authors: Maria Teresa Ventura, Nicola Scichilone, Roberto Paganelli, Paola Lucia Minciullo, Vincenzo Patella, Matteo Bonini, Giovanni Passalacqua, Carlo Lombardi, Livio Simioni, Erminia Ridolo, Stefano R. Del Giacco, Sebastiano Gangemi and Giorgio Walter Canonica

Clinical management, expectations, and satisfaction of patients with moderate to severe allergic rhinoconjunctivitis treated with SQ-standardized grass-allergen tablet under routine clinical practice conditions in Spain

Sublingual immunotherapy has been proven as a well-tolerated and effective treatment for allergic rhinitis. Within this type of treatment, GRAZAX^® is the most documented product in terms of safety and efficacy. T...

Authors: Tomás Chivato, Pedro Álvarez-Calderón, Carmen Panizo, Ricardo Abengozar, César Alías, Ali Al-Baech, José Arias-Irigoyen, M. José Caballero, Lluis Conill, Silvia de Miguel, Rafael Laguna, Joan Martínez-Benazet, Francisco Matoses, Jose Camilo Martínez-Alonso, Lourdes Mendizábal, Celsa Pérez-Carral…

Different clinical allergological features of Taenia solium infestation

The tapeworm Taenia (T.) solium can be responsible for two different conditions: taeniasis and cysticercosis. Helminth infections in human host cause an immune response associated with elevated levels of IgE, tis...

Authors: Paola Lucia Minciullo, Antonio Cascio, Stefania Isola and Sebastiano Gangemi

Eosinophilic disorders of the gastro-intestinal tract: an update

Eosinophilic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and eosinophilic gastroenteritis (EGE), are rare chronic pathologies of the digestive system, with an immuno-mediat...

Authors: Erminia Ridolo, Valerie Melli, Gianluigi De’ Angelis and Irene Martignago

Chitinase 3-like-1 is produced by human Th17 cells and correlates with the level of inflammation in juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients

CHI3L1 is a chitinase-like protein without enzymatic activity, produced by activated macrophages, chondrocytes, neutrophils. Recent studies on arthritis, asthma, and inflammatory bowel diseases suggest that ch...

Authors: Manuela Capone, Laura Maggi, Veronica Santarlasci, Maria Caterina Rossi, Alessio Mazzoni, Gianni Montaini, Rolando Cimaz, Matteo Ramazzotti, Marie Pierre Piccinni, Giusi Barra, Raffaele De Palma, Francesco Liotta, Enrico Maggi, Sergio Romagnani, Francesco Annunziato and Lorenzo Cosmi

HIV-1 Nef promotes migration and chemokine synthesis of human basophils and mast cells through the interaction with CXCR4

The Nef protein can be detected in plasma of HIV-1-infected patients and plays a role in the pathogenesis of HIV-1. Nef produced during the early stages of infection is fundamental in creating the ideal enviro...

Authors: Francesca Wanda Rossi, Nella Prevete, Felice Rivellese, Antonio Lobasso, Filomena Napolitano, Francescopaolo Granata, Carmine Selleri and Amato de Paulis

Dose-dependence of protection from systemic reactions to venom immunotherapy by omalizumab

Systemic reactions (SR) to venom immunotherapy (VIT) are rare but may occur, with a rate significantly higher for honeybee than for vespid VIT. In patients with repeated SRs to VIT it is difficult to reach the...

Authors: Elisa Boni, Cristoforo Incorvaia and Marina Mauro

Mastocytosis and systemic sclerosis: a clinical association

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by vascular alterations and autoimmune activation leading to widespread organ fibrosis. At the early stage of disease when organ involveme...

Authors: Gianluca Bagnato, William Neal Roberts, Davide Sciortino, Donatella Sangari, Santa Cirmi, Roneka L. Ravenell, Michele Navarra, Gianfilippo Bagnato and Sebastiano Gangemi

Burden of allergic respiratory disease: a systematic review

This meta-analysis compared the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and/or allergic asthma (AA) caused by perennial house dust mite (HDM) versus AR and/or AA caused by...

Authors: A. Linneberg, K. Dam Petersen, J. Hahn-Pedersen, E. Hammerby, N. Serup-Hansen and N. Boxall

How pregnancy can affect autoimmune diseases progression?

Autoimmune disorders are characterized by tissue damage, caused by self-reactivity of different effectors mechanisms of the immune system, namely antibodies and T cells. Their occurrence may be associated with...

Authors: Marie-Pierre Piccinni, Letizia Lombardelli, Federica Logiodice, Ornela Kullolli, Paola Parronchi and Sergio Romagnani

Unmet diagnostic needs in contact oral mucosal allergies

The oral mucosa including the lips is constantly exposed to several noxious stimuli, irritants and allergens. However, oral contact pathologies are not frequently seen because of the relative resistance of the...

Authors: Paola Lucia Minciullo, Giovanni Paolino, Maddalena Vacca, Sebastiano Gangemi and Eustachio Nettis

Drug induced exfoliative dermatitis: state of the art

Drug induced exfoliative dermatitis (ED) are a group of rare and severe drug hypersensitivity reactions (DHR) involving skin and usually occurring from days to several weeks after drug exposure. Erythema multi...

Authors: Mona-Rita Yacoub, Alvise Berti, Corrado Campochiaro, Enrico Tombetti, Giuseppe Alvise Ramirez, Andrea Nico, Elisabetta Di Leo, Paola Fantini, Maria Grazia Sabbadini, Eustachio Nettis and Giselda Colombo

Pilot study: assessing the clinical diagnosis of allergy in atopic children using a microarray assay in addition to skin prick testing and serum specific IgE

Children with atopic dermatitis (AD) are at risk of developing allergy. Alongside clinical history, testing modalities include skin prick tests (SPT), specific immunoglobulin-E (sp-IgE) and recently, microarra...

Authors: Ru-Xin Foong, Graham Roberts, Adam Tobias Fox and George du Toit

Vitamin D3 improves the effects of low dose Der p 2 allergoid treatment in Der p 2 sensitized BALB/c mice

Airborne allergens can induce an immunological chronic disease characterized by airway hyper responsiveness and inflammation, mediated by exaggerated Th2 immune response. Allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT) ...

Authors: Claudia Petrarca, Emanuela Clemente, Valentina Amato, Alessia Gatta, Sara Cortese, Alessia Lamolinara, Cosmo Rossi, Stefania Zanotta, Gianni Mistrello, Roberto Paganelli and Mario Di Gioacchino

Thrombotic risk assessment in antiphospholipid syndrome: the role of new antibody specificities and thrombin generation assay

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune condition characterized by the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) in subjects presenting with thrombosis and/or pregnancy loss. The currently used cl...

Authors: Savino Sciascia, Simone Baldovino, Karen Schreiber, Laura Solfietti, Massimo Radin, Maria J. Cuadrado, Elisa Menegatti, Doruk Erkan and Dario Roccatello

Appropriateness in allergic respiratory diseases health care in Italy: definitions and organizational aspects

In a historical period in which sustainability of the National Health Service is mandatory because of the international economical situation, the limited available resources at national level and the tendency ...

Authors: Carlo Lombardi, Eleonora Savi, Maria Teresa Costantino, Enrico Heffler, Manlio Milanese, Giovanni Passalacqua and Giorgio Walter Canonica

Quality of life in patients with food allergy

Food allergy has increased in developed countries and can have a dramatic effect on quality of life, so as to provoke fatal reactions. We aimed to outline the socioeconomic impact that food allergy exerts in t...

Authors: Darío Antolín-Amérigo, Luis Manso, Marco Caminati, Belén de la Hoz Caballer, Inmaculada Cerecedo, Alfonso Muriel, Mercedes Rodríguez-Rodríguez, José Barbarroja-Escudero, María José Sánchez-González, Beatriz Huertas-Barbudo and Melchor Alvarez-Mon

Comparing the ability of molecular diagnosis and CAP-inhibition in identifying the really causative venom in patients with positive tests to Vespula and Polistes species

Cross-reactivity among Hymenoptera venoms is an important issue when prescribing venom immunotherapy (VIT). Using all venoms eliciting a positive response results in treatment excess and unjustified cost incre...

Authors: Eleonora Savi, Silvia Peveri, Elena Makri, Valerio Pravettoni and Cristoforo Incorvaia

Skin microbiota of first cousins affected by psoriasis and atopic dermatitis

Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) are chronic inflammatory skin diseases, which negatively influence the quality of life. In the last years, several evidences highlighted the pivotal role of skin bacteria ...

Authors: Lorenzo Drago, Roberta De Grandi, Gianfranco Altomare, Paolo Pigatto, Oliviero Rossi and Marco Toscano

Interleukin-17-producing decidual CD4+ T cells are not deleterious for human pregnancy when they also produce interleukin-4

Trophoblast expressing paternal HLA-C antigens resemble a semiallograft, and could be rejected by maternal CD4+ T lymphocytes. We examined the possible role in human pregnancy of Th17 cells, known to be involv...

Authors: Letizia Lombardelli, Federica Logiodice, Maryse Aguerre-Girr, Ornela Kullolli, Herman Haller, Ysabel Casart, Alain Berrebi, Fatima-Ezzahra L’Faqihi-Olive, Valérie Duplan, Sergio Romagnani, Enrico Maggi, Daniel Rukavina, Philippe Le Bouteiller and Marie-Pierre Piccinni

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of diagnostic methods in adult food allergy

Authors: Donatella Macchia, Giovanni Melioli, Valerio Pravettoni, Eleonora Nucera, Marta Piantanida, Marco Caminati, Corrado Campochiaro, Mona-Rita Yacoub, Domenico Schiavino, Roberto Paganelli and Mario Di Gioacchino

Determinants of venom-specific IgE antibody concentration during long-term wasp venom immunotherapy

Venom immunotherapy (VIT) is an effective treatment for subjects with systemic allergic reactions (SR) to Hymenoptera stings, however there are few studies concerning the relevance of the venom specific IgE ch...

Authors: Valerio Pravettoni, Marta Piantanida, Laura Primavesi, Stella Forti and Elide A. Pastorello

Different co-sensitizations could determine different risk assessment in peach allergy? Evaluation of an anaphylactic biomarker in Pru p 3 positive patients

In Italy, the nsLTP (Pru p 3) has been identified as the most frequent cause of food allergy and anaphylaxis. In order to estimate the risk assessment in peach allergy, we investigated the presence of correlat...

Authors: Carina Gabriela Uasuf, Danilo Villalta, Maria Elisabetta Conte, Caterina Di Sano, Maria Barrale, Vincenzo Cantisano, Elisabetta Pace, Mark Gjomarkaj, Sebastiano Gangemi and Ignazio Brusca

Choosing wisely in Allergology: a Slow Medicine approach to the discipline promoted by the Italian Society of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology (SIAAIC)

One of the main problem health care systems are facis is the mis-use and over-use of medical resources (including useless exams, surgical interventions, medical treatments, screening procedures…) which may lea...

Authors: Enrico Heffler, Massimo Landi, Silvana Quadrino, Cristoforo Incorvaia, Stefano Pizzimenti, Sandra Vernero, Nunzio Crimi, Giovanni Rolla and Giorgio Walter Canonica

Asthma under/misdiagnosis in primary care setting: an observational community-based study in Italy

Published data suggest that asthma is significantly under/misdiagnosed. The present community-based study performed in Italy aims at investigating the level of asthma under/misdiagnosis among patients referrin...

Authors: Maria Sandra Magnoni, Marco Caminati, Gianenrico Senna, Fabio Arpinelli, Andrea Rizzi, Anna Rita Dama, Michele Schiappoli, Germano Bettoncelli and Gaetano Caramori

MDA5-positive dermatomyositis: an uncommon entity in Europe with variable clinical presentations

Clinically amyopathic dermatomyositis (CADM), described almost 50 years ago, is defined on the basis of still not validated criteria and characterized by skin findings almost without muscle weakness. Autoantib...

Authors: Paola Parronchi, Anna Radice, Boaz Palterer, Francesco Liotta and Cristina Scaletti

Risk of anaphylaxis in patients with large local reactions to hymenoptera stings: a retrospective and prospective study

In the few studies available, the risk of developing systemic reactions (SR) to hymenoptera stings in patients with previous large local reactions (LLRs) to stings ranges from 0 to 7 %. We evaluated both retro...

Authors: Stefano Pucci, Simona D’Alò, Tiziana De Pasquale, Ilenia Illuminati, Elena Makri and Cristoforo Incorvaia

360 degree perspective on allergic rhinitis management in Italy: a survey of GPs, pharmacists and patients

General practitioners (GPs), community pharmacists and allergic rhinitis (AR) patients in Italy were surveyed in order to gain insight from all three perspectives into the diagnosis, management and burden of A...

Authors: G. Walter Canonica, Massimo Triggiani and GianEnrico Senna

AIT (allergen immunotherapy): a model for the “precision medicine”

The interpretation of medical approaches, especially therapy, evolved rapidly in the last century. Starting from the simple description of symptoms, we moved to the pathophysiological descriptions, to the evid...

Authors: Giovanni Passalacqua and Giorgio Walter Canonica

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of diagnostic methods in adult food allergy

Food allergy has an increasing prevalence in the general population and in Italy concerns 8 % of people with allergies. The spectrum of its clinical manifestations ranges from mild symptoms up to potentially f...

Authors: Donatella Macchia, Giovanni Melioli, Valerio Pravettoni, Eleonora Nucera, Marta Piantanida, Marco Caminati, Corrado Campochiaro, Mona-Rita Yacoub, Domenico Schiavino, Roberto Paganelli and Mario Di Gioacchino

Biomarkers and severe asthma: a critical appraisal

Severe asthma (SA) is a clinically and etiologically heterogeneous respiratory disease which affects among 5–10 % of asthmatic patients. Despite high-dose therapy, a large patients percentage is not fully cont...

Authors: Alessandra Chiappori, Laura De Ferrari, Chiara Folli, Pierluigi Mauri, Anna Maria Riccio and Giorgio Walter Canonica

Are atopy and eosinophilic bronchial inflammation associated with relapsing forms of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps?

The aetiopathogenesis of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is still unknown. The role of atopy and the concept of united airways in such patients are still a matter of debate. In this pilot stu...

Authors: Mona-Rita Yacoub, Matteo Trimarchi, George Cremona, Sara Dal Farra, Giuseppe Alvise Ramirez, Valentina Canti, Emanuel Della Torre, Mattia Baldini, Patrizia Pignatti, Mario Bussi, Maria Grazia Sabbadini, Angelo A Manfredi and Giselda Colombo