Active clinical trials for "Hypersensitivity"

Birch pollen allergy is increasingly common. It causes asthma and early season hay fever. This is because the body recognises birch pollen and reacts to it, leading to symptoms. Many patients with birch allergy get an itchy and/or swollen mouth when they eat fresh fruit (apples, pears, peaches, plums etc). Some fruit proteins have a similar structure to birch pollen; because of this the body recognises these proteins too causing the immune system to respond. This response causes symptoms of itch and swelling inside the mouth and throat. the investigators want to find out whether it is possible to get rid of the fruit-induced symptoms by using a desensitisation procedure that has been developed for treating the kind of hay fever that is caused by birch pollen. Desensitisation involves giving a small injection of pollen just under the skin and gradually increasing the amount each week. This allows the body to build up a "tolerance" to the injected protein. When the pollen is then encountered in real life the immune system reacts less vigorously so symptoms are less severe. This treatment does reduce hay fever symptoms. Our study aims to find out if this tolerance is transferred to the fruit proteins enabling patients to eat apples with minimal symptoms. Patients will be given apple to eat in a hidden form before treatment and their response assessed. They will then receive either active or dummy pollen injections before birch pollen season. A few months after completing these injections they will have another disguised apple test to see whether their symptoms are any better. If symptoms have improved with treatment then this therapy could be offered to patients in the future. This would allow them to eat fresh fruit without worrying about unpleasant symptoms and improve their hay fever symptoms.

The overall objectives of this study are to examine the relationships between circulating vitamin D, insulin sensitivity, and multiple indices of vascular function and to examine whether vitamin D deficiency in African Americans (AA) and White Hispanics (WH) is responsible for ethnic differences in insulin sensitivity and hypertension in AA, WH and European Americans (EA), as well as mechanisms underlying the association between insulin resistance and blood pressure. We hypothesize that 1) serum 25(OH)D is associated with insulin sensitivity and vascular functioning, independent of adiposity, 2) lower insulin sensitivity and vascular functioning in AA and WH relative to EA is due to lower circulating 25(OH)D in AA, and 3) the relationship between insulin resistance and vascular dysfunction is mediated by 25(OH)D. Acronyms: African American (AA), European American (EA), White Hispanics (WH), Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25()H)D, Body mass index (BMI), Alabama (AL).

Cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are markedly increased in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and may be explained in part by sympathetic hyperactivity. Impaired hyperoxic chemoreflex sensitivity (CHRS) has been attributed to an increased sympathetic activity. The aim of the present study is to examine whether chemosensor function is altered in patients with stage 3 and stage 4 CKD.

This protocol is designed to provide blood, buccal mucosa and bone marrow aspirate samples from approximately 250, healthy volunteer donors for use in in vitro studies of mast cells, mastocytosis, and allergic diseases. Non-atopic donors will be recruited to donate blood, bone marrow, and/or buccal mucosa samples using conventional techniques. The investigational nature of the studies in which their blood, bone marrow and buccal mucosa samples will be used, as well as the risks and benefits of the donation process will be explained to all donors, and a signed informed consent document will be obtained. Donors will be compensated according to an established schedule based on the duration and discomfort of the donations. Samples provided through this protocol will be used solely for in vitro research. Blood, bone marrow, and buccal mucosa samples will be assigned a unique product number and the study investigators listed on this protocol will serve as the custodians of the code that links the product with a donor s identity. The nature of the in vitro studies in which the blood collected in this study will be used is not the subject of this protocol and will be described in general terms only. The samples will be used in several Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved Laboratory of Allergic Diseases (LAD) protocols. This protocol is designed to assure adequate and complete informed consent, counseling, and protection of the study subjects according to IRB, Office of Human Subjects Research (OHSR), Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) and other applicable Federal regulatory standards.

Cat allergy is an increasingly prevalent condition, affecting 10-15% of patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and/or asthma. The purpose of this optional observational follow-on study is to further evaluate rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms on exposure to cat dander in the EEC among subjects who completed all dosing visits in study CP005 approximately one year after the start of treatment.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are considered as "one airway, one disease". Although there is increasing evidence for an association between allergy and depression, it remains unknown if the relationship between AR and asthma has extra influence on the psychological status of the patients. The aim of our study was to investigate the influence pattern of asthma on the psychological status in AR patients. The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) was employed to analyze the psychological status of 524 individuals with AR. Independent sample T-tests, one-way ANOVA and multivariate ANOVA were used for data analyses.

It has been reported recently that the detection of synovitis by ultrasonography was more sensitive than clinical examination (Wakefield et al. Ann Rheum Dis). An OMERACT and EULAR working party recently produced guidelines on the best way to record and score quantitatively synovitis of the small joints of the hands and feet (Wakefield R, D'Agostino MA). It has also been presumed recently that ultrasonography was more sensitive to changes than clinical examination after anti-TNF treatment (Ref. Taylor et al). If this better sensitivity to change were to be confirmed, ultrasonography would be preferred to clinical examination in studies evaluating new treatments. In everyday practice, better intrinsic validity of the evaluation of synovitis by ultrasonography would lead to widespread use of this technique in the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients. Objective of this study is to compare the sensitivity to change in synovitis score according to the monitoring method used (clinical examination versus ultrasonography).

This retrospective case-control study is being conducted to estimate the sensitivity of the pharmacogenetic marker, HLA-B*5701 for hypersensitivity to abacavir (ABC HSR). The specificity of the marker, and its association with ABC HSR, as measured by odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals, will be evaluated as secondary endpoints. Cases will be defined in two ways - subjects who have clinically-suspected ABC HSR and a positive abacavir skin patch test reaction (CS-SPTPos) and subjects with clinically-suspected ABC HSR (CS-HSR), regardless of the results of skin patch testing. The study will include 40 CS-SPTPos Black cases matched with up to 200 abacavir-tolerant controls. In parallel, 40 CS-SPTPos White cases will be matched with up to 200 White controls. Some of the secondary analyses will use cases defined by clinical criteria alone (CS-HSR). Black and White subjects will be analyzed separately because of the differences in ABC HSR rates and in the carriage frequency of HLA-B*5701.

Retrospective, multicenter study in patients with hemophilia B. This study will be placed at 20 to 50 hemophilia treatment centers in North America and the EU, and is designed to estimate the frequency of Class II and III allergic reactions in association with the administration of any FIX concentrate. Following informed consent and eligibility, historical patient information including demographics, allergy history, hemophilia history, frequency and severity of allergic reaction(s), number of exposure days with products causing allergic reactions, exposure days to blood products including FIX concentrates, treatment for allergic reaction(s), outcome of event(s), any other adverse event(s) occuring within 48 hours of onset of allergic reaction(s), rechallenge and outcome, switch to another FIX product (if applicable) and outcome, current status of patient, and results of any special studies (eg, skin or RAST testing, alloantibody analyses, ect) will be collected.

immunological study of the T cell repertoire phenotype and functionality in hypersensitivity syndrome.