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Biomedical subjects

G de Montis

Publications and source records attributed to G de Montis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

[Value (and limitations) of the RAST fx5 in pediatric allergological practice].

RAST f x 5 (CAP-system, Pharmacia), an in vitro assay testing a mixture of 6 food antigens, was systematically applied to 400 children and adolescents with respiratory pathologies possibly of allergic origin. The clinical aspects of the 293 test-negative patients were compared with those of the 107 positive cases. Furthermore, 84 positive sera were also evaluated against each of the 6 antigens regrouped in the f x 5. In this population with allergic respiratory diseases, the most frequently positive tests reacted with antigens of plant origins: wheat, peanut and soybean. From an economic point of view, first-line use of f x 5 markedly reduced the cost of a systematic study of food allergens, whose clinical justification remains to be demonstrated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

[Reevaluation of environmental factors in allergy to mites: bedding not a factor?].

Prospective multicentric study was conducted among parents of children referred in three allergy units. Unlike current opinions: carpets are less frequent in bedrooms of mite's allergic children. foam bedding don't play any role, local humidity non significantly increases the mite's allergy risk. the sunlight absence is significantly correlated with this hypersensitivity. These data, mainly inconsistent with general conviction, could be explained by socio economic diversity of patients.

Allergens↗
PubMed1992

[Allergy: the pressing need for public education].

Data collected using a self-questionnaire filled out by the families of 294 children under 12 years of age seen in a pneumoallergology clinic showed widespread lack of information on the role of environmental factors in allergic diseases. Parents ascribed their child's disease to the environment at home only when they were dissatisfied by their housing conditions. Parents who were satisfied with their home failed to perceive that indoor factors with detrimental effects may nevertheless be present. This lack of information was seen across the spectrum of enrolled patients, including in those with hypersensitivity to house mites. The need for health education of the public at large aimed at promoting preventive strategies is underlined.

Allergens↗
PubMed1992

[Role of the Acarid Euroglyphus Maynei in allergic respiratory diseases in children].

The author has search specific IgE antibodies anti-Euroglyphus Maynei house dust mite among 200 children and teenagers. All had respiratory disease with a presumed allergic etiology. Specific IgE were found in eighty three subjects, all of them with hypersensitivity against Dermatophagoïdes pteronyssinus house dust mite. None parameter can explain this hypersensitivity but these hypersensitive subjects are older than others.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

[Maternal depression as a severity factor in respiratory hypersensitivity in children].

Of 136 children under 13 yr of age with allergic respiratory disease, 91 had an obstructive syndrome, at rest or induced in the laboratory, without relationship to the clinical symptoms described by the families. In the at-rest group, mothers have been more frequently subjected to depression during the child's infancy. This history of maternal depression appears to increase the frequency of the obstructive syndrome at rest in the child, with a relative risk of 2.87.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

[Constitutional differences in the risk of hypersensitivity to cats in children].

Several risk factors for allergy to cats were studied in children and teenagers who had respiratory symptoms possibly of allergic origin and were chronically exposed to a cat. It appears that: atopic dermatitis significantly increases the risk, independently of the other parameters examined; a family history of presumed allergic respiratory disease without atopic dermatitis significantly increases the risk in boys carrying the rhesus phenotype cc; passive smoking significantly increases the risk for allergy to cats in rhesus CC antigen-bearing subjects, independently of all other parameters (family history or atopic dermatitis). These factors aggravating risk, which can easily be determined by each physician, may prove useful, once personalized, in strengthening the general recommendations given to parents but routinely disregarded due to the lack of readily identifiable constitutional markers to establish the undeniable risk of hypersensitivity to cats.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Dopaminergic dysfunction in neonatal hypothyroidism: differential effects of GM1 ganglioside.

The effects of daily treatment with GM1 ganglioside (30 mg/kg s.c.) from birth to day 30, on striatal pre- and postsynaptic markers of the dopaminergic system in euthyroid- and 32 day-old hypothyroid rats were studied. The purpose was to assess whether GM1 could prevent the extensive, hypothyroidism-provoked impairment of dopaminergic neurotransmission. Neonatal administration of GM1 well counteracted the hypothyroidism-related deficits in striatal synaptosomal uptake of [3H]dopamine and in membrane binding of [3H]tyramine, a putative marker for the vesicular carrier of dopamine. In the hypothyroid striatum, the decrease of concentrations of DOPAC and HVA, the loss of [3H]SCH-23,390-labelled D1-receptors and the decrease of basal- or dopamine-stimulated, D1-mediated activity of adenylate cyclase were not prevented by GM1. Although somatic and neurobehavioural aberrations of hypothyroids were not at all or only partially ameliorated, a slight improvement of the thyroid status was suggested by less decreased levels of serum thyroxine (T4) after treatment with GM1. The ganglioside-driven selective recovery of the transport and storage process of [3H]dopamine might result either from a chronically-exerted stimulation by GM1 on the NA/K- and Mg-ATPase activities, thus reflecting on the ATPase-dependent neuronal and vesicular transport processes of dopamine or from a GM1-promoted maturation of the otherwise retarded functionality of dopaminergic nerve endings in the neonatal hypothyroid striatum.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1990

Neonatal hypothyroidism induces striatal dopaminergic dysfunction.

Oral administration of the antithyroid drug methimazole (50 mg/kg per day) to rats during the last six days of pregnancy, and subsequent daily s.c. injection of methimazole (20-30 mg/kg) to their pups from birth to postnatal day 30 provoked hormonal and somatic alterations resembling (with all caution to any association between rodent and human data) those of congenital hypothyroidism. The steady-state concentrations of striatal dopamine were similar in hypothyroid and euthyroid, 32-day-old rats, while the levels of the dopamine metabolites 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic and homovanillic acids were markedly decreased in hypothyroidism. The results of this and our earlier study [Vaccari A. and Gessa G. L. (1989) Neurochem. Res. 14, 949-955] show that the maximal synaptosomal uptake of [3H]dopamine, an index for the density of nigrostriatal dopaminergic terminals, and the maximum number of membrane [3H]tyramine binding sites, reflecting the concentration of the vesicular transporter for dopamine, were decreased in the hypothyroid striatum. There was also a loss of those D1-type dopaminergic receptors claimed to be located on neurons intrinsic to the striatum, and, consequently, dopamine-stimulated, D1-regulated adenylate cyclase activity was depressed. It is suggested that individual dopaminergic nerve endings in the neonatal hypothyroid striatum must contain more dopamine, owing to some loss of pertinent innervation and, therefore, to the presence of less vesicular transport sites for dopamine. Hypothyroidism-related decreases in the maximum number of striatal D1- and, reportedly, D2-receptors, plus the impairment of D1-coupled second messenger activity, may play a role in the derangement of those neurobehavioural patterns where a dopaminergic regulation is putatively implied.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1990

[Rhesus phenotype and lymphocyte subpopulations].

Lymphocyte subpopulations identified by OK3, OK4 and OK8 monoclonal antibodies were studied as a function of certain Rh markers in 2 groups of subjects: 47 children and adolescents with proven reaginic IgE-dependent allergies and 29 healthy adult controls. The Rh antigens C and c were evaluated in their 3 possible configurations: CC, Cc and cc. In both groups studied, the same significant distribution was observed. Allergic cc subjects had the most CD4+ lymphocytes (43.4%) versus CC (34%) and Cc (33.7%), as compared to control cc (42.05%), CC (36.1%). The possible clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

[Does prevention of allergy work?].

The relationship between parental antecedents of respiratory disease and actual home exposure to smoking and pets was studied in a population of 2,000 children and adolescents with respiratory disease, presumably of allergic origin. No significant differences were observed in the frequency of home exposure to smoking and pets whether the children had unilateral, bilateral or no parental antecedents of respiratory disease. Thus, from this study there appears to be no evidence to suggest that a personal history of respiratory disease leads parents to apply better preventive measures at home for their children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

[Familial forms of gastro-esophageal reflux].

Gastroesophageal reflux is a common disorder that can be responsible for respiratory disease and is not considered as an inherited condition. We report five families with several affected members. Other familial cases have been published and some authors have suggested that transmission occurs on an autosomal dominant basis. Only prospective studies could determine whether GER is an inherited disorder, but at present their feasibility is limited since currently available diagnostic investigations are not suitable for screening.

Child↗
PubMed1989

Serum thymic hormone thymulin activity is normal in children with asthma.

In asthma, it has been hypothesized that suppressor T-lymphocytes play a protective role and have been reported to be functionally abnormal. Thymic hormone thymulin plays a role in the differentiation of T-lymphocytes and plasmatic thymulin concentration and is related to the functional state of the thymus. To assess the participation of the thymus in the impairment of T-lymphocyte function, we measured plasma thymulin activity in children with allergic asthma (N = 40). The plasma thymulin activity was compared with plasma thymulin activity of children with nonallergic asthma (N = 6), children with atopic dermatitis (N = 9) or allergic rhinitis (N = 7), and in age-matched healthy control children (N = 18) (age range of children studied, 2 to 19 years). Thymulin activity was found within the normal range (1/16 to 1/64) in all control children and in all children with allergic asthma and allergic rhinitis, as well as in all children with intrinsic asthma and atopic dermatitis. Our findings are at variance with the low thymulin activity previously reported in allergic asthma, and we could not explain these discrepancies. (Both studies used the same bioassay, and the population studied did not appear to be different.) T-lymphocyte abnormalities in subjects with asthma must be assessed by other means than measurement of thymic function.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

[Prognosis in atopic dermatitis].

The author recalls the difficulties of epidemiological enquiries in these conditions: sometimes minimal clinical expression, evolution prolonged and/or recurrent, thus the diagnosis is not only medical but may directly originate from the relatives, it is often the case that atopic dermatitis is grouped together with constitutional eczema and confused by the public with eczema, an popular conception that covers many skin lesions. From the bibliography, the prognosis cannot dbe determined accurately. Passage to asthma, with or without persistence of the skin lesions is the greatest fear when the dermatitis is severe. It is often a question of serious asthma. These uncertainties probably arise from the fact that these affections are syndromes artificially collected under the name of atopy. Clarification will only come if the field of atopy is derived according to the functions of the various causal pathophysiological mechanisms.

Cohort Studies↗
PubMed1987

[RAST and acari in stored goods].

During a multicentre trial, responses of serum from 60 asthmatic children with allergy to the mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (D1) were compared to D. farinae (D2) and 4 storage mites. The known cross reaction between D1 and D2 was confirmed but no such reaction was found between D1 and/or D2 and the storage mites. Because the important cross reactivity between storage mites, the choice of the allergen will depend on the historical and epidemiological data of the disease.

Acari↗