No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Dermatomyositis*

No abstract available.
Hyperostosis, Cortical, Congenital*

No abstract available.
Endocarditis*

PURPOSE: The release of histamine from human basophils is controlled by an intrinsic, as yet unidentified, cellular property termed "releasability." We carried out this study to ascertain whether there was any difference in the releasability of basophils from asthmatic children compared to those from normal children. We intended also to clarify the correlation between the releasability and the atopic status of asthma. METHODS: We selected nineteen atopic asthmatic, eighteen nonatopic asthmatic and fourteen normal children for this study. Suspensions of leukocytes were isolated and stimulated with calcium ionophore A23187, anti-IgE and D. pteronyssinus antigen. After incubation, the supernatant was assayed for histamine with an automated fluorometric technique. RESULTS: Basophil histamine release with anti-IgE was different in three groups. Anti-IgE caused significantly more basophil histamine release in asthmatic children than in nomal children. Atopic asthmatic group showed greater basophil histamine release with anti-IgE than nonatopic asthmatic group. D. pteronyssinus antigen caused the significant amount of histamine release only in atopic asthmatic group. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that basophils from asthmatic children are characterized by a specific increase in IgE mediated histamine releasability. The difference of histamine releasability with anti-IgE between atopic and nonatopic asthmatic children may be due to the heterogeneity of IgE bound to cell surface, or may be due to the degree of the basophil activation by cytokines such as IL3. The specific release of histamine with D. pteronyssinus antigen in atopic asthmatic group suggests that the basophil histamine release test can be used to diagnose the causing antigen.
Asthma ; Basophils* ; Calcimycin ; Calcium ; Child* ; Cytokines ; Histamine Release ; Histamine* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E ; Leukocytes ; Population Characteristics ; Suspensions

PURPOSE: Many different conditions result in pleural effusions (PEs) and making the differential diagnosis of PE is difficult. The purpose of the present study was to document the change of incidence and compare the etiologies of PEs with regards to age, the sidedness and characteristics of PE. METHODS: During the 10-year period from 1986 to 1995, thoracentesis was performed in 197 children with PEs at Seoul National University Children's Hospital. The hospital records of these children were reviewed, and radiologic findings and laboratory data of PE were analyzed. RESULTS: The distribution of the etiologies of PEs changed with the declining incidence of tuberculous PE. Infectious PE was the leading cause of PE in each age group. The most common etiology of infectious PE in children aged less than 3 years was bacterial PE, aged 3 to 6 years mycoplasma PE, and aged more than 6 years tuberculous PE. Malignant PE was the second most frequent cause of PE and the incidence of it was marked in children aged 3 to 6 years. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was the most frequent cause of malignant PE and Burkitt lymphoma and leukemia were the next two leading causes of it. The sidedness of the PE was not helpful in differentiating various types of PEs. Measurements of the pleural fluid protein & glucose were not useful either. Bacterial PE presented the highest LDH activity. Infectious PE presented higher pleural fluid leukocyte count than any other type of PE, and bacterial PE was most prominent in this respect. The PE polymorphonuclear leukocyte % was marked in bacterial PE and the PE lymphocyte % in tuberculous PE. CONCLUSION: The distribution of the etiologies of PEs seems to have changed. Age, LDH, leukocyte count and differential cell count of PE were helpful in differentiating various types of PEs.
Burkitt Lymphoma ; Cell Count ; Child* ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Glucose ; Hospital Records ; Humans ; Incidence ; Leukemia ; Leukocyte Count ; Lymphocytes ; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin ; Mycoplasma ; Neutrophils ; Pleural Effusion* ; Seoul

No abstract available.
Child* ; Humans

Primary ciliary dyskinesia is characterized by chronic upper and lower respiratory infections which are caused by the grossly impaired ciliary transport. Since the cilia and neutrophils both utilize microtubular system for their movement, it has been speculated that neutrophil motility such as chemotaxis might be impaired in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia. Neutrophils were purified from whole blood from 16 patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia and from 15 healthy controls. Chemotactic responses of neutrophils to leukotriene B4 (LTB4), complement 5a (C5a), and formylmethion-ylleucylphenylalanine (fMLP) were examined using the under agarose method. The chemotactic differentials in response to LTB4, C5a, and fMLP in neutrophils from the patient group were significantly lower than the corresponding values in neutrophils from the control group (p<0.05 for all comparisons). The difference in chemotactic index between the two groups was statistically significant for LTB4 and fMLP (p<0.05 for both comparisons), but not for C5a (p=0.20). Neutrophils from patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia showed a decreased chemotactic response as compared with those from normal subjects. It is concluded that the increased frequency of respiratory tract infection in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia is possibly due to the defective directional migration of neutrophils, as well as to the defective mucociliary clearance of the airways.
Adolescent ; Chemotactic Factors/pharmacology ; Chemotaxis* ; Child ; Cilia/ultrastructure ; Comparative Study ; Complement 5a/pharmacology ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Dynein ATPase/chemistry ; Human ; Kartagener Syndrome/blood* ; Kartagener Syndrome/classification ; Leukotriene B4/pharmacology ; Male ; N-Formylmethionine Leucyl-Phenylalanine/pharmacology ; Neutrophils/physiology* ; Neutrophils/ultrastructure

PURPOSE: Airways hyperresponsiveness is a hallmark of asthma. Inhaled corticosteroids improve hyperresponsiveness, but the extent of improvement may vary considerably between patients. This study was designed to determine which patient characteristics predict these differences in response. METHODS: Children with atopic asthma(n=71) received inhaled budesonide(800microgram per day) regularly for 12 weeks, and methacholine PC20 was measured before and after the treatment. Baseline clinical characteristics of children were analyzed with regard to their response to budesonide therapy. RESULTS: The children were divided into high(n=36) and low responder(n=35) on the basis of the median value of the doubling doses(change in PC20). There were no differences observed between the two groups with respect to age, sex, eosinophil counts, and pretreatment FEV1 or methacholine PC20. Among the allergic parameters, serum total IgE was higher in the high responder group than in the low responder group, whereas Dermatophagoides-specific IgE levels or skin test wheal sizes were not different between the two groups. There was a significant correlation between total IgE level and change in PC20. CONCLUSION: Total serum IgE was found to be the most important and single predictor of change in PC20 with inhaled corticosteroids.
Adrenal Cortex Hormones* ; Asthma ; Budesonide ; Child* ; Eosinophils ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Methacholine Chloride ; Skin Tests

PURPOSE: Skin prick test and determination of allergen-specific IgE antibodies in serum are methods commonly used to diagnose allergies. Several studies indicate that skin test and specific IgE have roughly the same diagnostic precision, although discrepancies exist. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of total serum IgE on the relation between skin prick test and allergen-specific IgE antibody. METHODS: We performed skin prick tests using 14 major inhalant allergens and measured total IgE and specific IgE for two major allergens [Dermatophagoides farinae(D.f.) and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (D.p.)] in serum of 230 children with atopic asthma. RESULTS: Positivity of skin prick test was 92.2% for D.f., 89.6% for D.p., and 22.6% for cockroach. Allergen/Histamine(A/H) ratio and allergen-specific IgE score showed a positive correlation for D.f.(r=0.39, P<0.01), and for D.p.(r=0.38, P<0.01). Total serum IgE and allergen-specific antibody score showed a positive correlation for D.f.(r=0.50, P<0.01), and for D.p.(r=0.53, P<0.01). There was no correlation between total serum IgE and A/H ratio on skin prick test for the two allergens. However, total serum IgE had the tendency to increase according to the number of positive allergens on skin prick test. At each level of A/H ratio for D.f. and D.p. on skin prick test, patients with high total IgE had higher antigen-specific IgE scores than patients with low total IgE. CONCLUSION: Our results show that the relationship between skin prick test and antigen-specific IgE was influenced by the level of serum total IgE. This indicates that the level of serum total IgE should be taken into account when skin prick test and allergen-specific IgE are compared.
Allergens ; Antibodies ; Asthma* ; Child* ; Cockroaches ; Dermatophagoides farinae ; Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus ; Humans ; Hypersensitivity ; Immunoglobulin E* ; Skin Tests ; Skin*