Mast cells and the liver aging process

Review

Mast cells and the liver aging process

Fabio Grizzi^1†, Giuseppe Di Caro¹, Luigi Laghi¹, Paul Hermonat², Paolo Mazzola³, Diane D Nguyen⁴, Saba Radhi⁴, Jose A Figueroa⁴, Everardo Cobos^4,5, Giorgio Annoni³ andMaurizio Chiriva-Internati^4,5,6*†

Immunity & Ageing 2013, 10:9 doi:10.1186/1742-4933-10-9

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.immunityageing.com/content/10/1/9

Abstract

It has now ascertained that the clinical manifestations of liver disease in the elderly population reflect both the cumulative effects of longevity on the liver and the generalized senescence of the organism ability to adjust to metabolic, infectious, and immunologic insults. Although liver tests are not significantly affected by age, the presentation of liver diseases such as viral hepatitis may be subtler in the elderly population than that of younger patients.

Human immunosenescence is a situation in which the immune system, particularly T lymphocyte function, deteriorates with age, while innate immunity is negligibly affected and in some cases almost up-regulated.

We here briefly review the relationships between the liver aging process and mast cells, the key effectors in a more complex range of innate immune responses than originally though.

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An evidence-based approach for providing cautionary recommendations to sulfonamide-allergic patients and determining cross-reactivity among sulfonamide-containing medications

Review Article

You have free access to this content

1. S. Ghimire MPharm¹, 
2. E. Kyung PharmD MPharm¹, 
3. J. H. Lee MD PhD², 
4. J. W. Kim MD³, 
5. W. Kang PhD^4,*, 
6. E. Kim PharmD PhD^5,*

Article first published online: 13 MAR 2013

DOI: 10.1111/jcpt.12048

© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Issue

Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics

Early View (Online Version of Record published before inclusion in an issue)

Summary

What is known and Objective

Prescribing sulfonamide-containing medications for patients with sulfonamide allergy continues to complicate medical decisions. We examined the cautionary recommendations in the approved drug monographs and primary literature, and formulated an evidence-based grading of cautionary recommendations for sulfonamide allergy and cross-reactivity among sulfonamide-containing medications.

Methods

Drug monographs were collected from six countries and three drug compendia. Two reviewers independently extracted the data from the contraindication, warning and/or precaution sections of drug monographs. Evidence for cross-reactivity was examined in the primary literature and compared with drug monograph recommendations. Consequently, medications were categorized based on the strength of recommendation and level of evidence by consensus.

Results and Discussion

We identified wide variability in cautionary recommendations ranging from no warning or precaution to contraindication among the sources reviewed. The recommendations were located mainly in the contraindication section of monographs for France (65·2%), United Kingdom (51·9%), Italy (50·0%), South Korea (43·5%), United States (38·2%) and Canada (37·0%), whereas in drug compendia, the recommendations were found in the precaution section for Martindale (51·4%) and Micromedex-Drugdex (33·3%), and contraindication and precaution section for the American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information 2010 (30·8%). Evidence from the primary literature varied with recommendation included in drug monographs. Evidence-based categorization was carried out for 16 medications. Two sulfonamide-moiety-containing drugs were considered safe, six non-sulfonylarylamines required precaution, and eight medications from all three sulfonamide chemical classes were considered mostly unsafe.

What is new and Conclusion

There are significant discrepancies in cautionary recommendations included in drug-labels and drug compendia. Statements concerning cross-reactive hypersensitivity with other sulfonamides generally suggest theoretical possibilities. The consensus evidence-based grading instrument developed may be useful for deriving cautionary recommendations for sulfonamide-allergic patients.

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Autoimmunity Reviews

Volume 12, Issue 3, January 2013, Pages 396–400

Review

Cogan's syndrome: An autoimmune inner ear disease

Open Access Article 

• A. Greco^a, , , 
• A. Gallo^a, 
• M. Fusconi^a, 
• G. Magliulo^a, 
• R. Turchetta^b, 
• C. Marinelli^a, 
• G.F. Macri^a, 
• A. De Virgilio^a, 
• M. de Vincentiis^a

• ^a ENT Department, Policlinico “Umberto I”, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Italy
• ^b Audiology Department, Policlinico “Umberto I”, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Italy

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2012.07.012, How to Cite or Link Using DOI

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Abstract

Objectives

The objective of our study was to review our current knowledge of the aetiopathogenesis of Cogan's syndrome, including viral infection and autoimmunity, and to discuss disease pathogenesis with relevance to pharmacotherapy.

Systematic review methodology

Relevant publications on the aetiopathogenesis and pharmacotherapy of Cogan's syndrome from 1945 to 2012 were analysed.

Results and conclusions

Cogan's syndrome is a rare autoimmune vasculitis, and its pathogenesis is unknown. Infection, but primarily autoimmunity, may play contributing roles in the pathogenesis of this disease. It is characterised by ocular and audiovestibular symptoms similar to those of Meniere's syndrome. Approximately 70% of patients have systemic disease, of which vasculitis is considered the pathological mechanism. The immunologic theory is based on the release of auto-antibodies against corneal, inner ear and endothelial antigens, and of anti-nuclear cytoplasmic auto-antibodies (ANCA).

Corticosteroids are the first line of treatment, and multiple immunosuppressive drugs have been tried with varying degrees of success. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha blockers are a category of immunosuppressive agents representing a recent novel therapeutic option in Cogan's syndrome.

• Abstract
• Objectives
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• Results and conclusions
• Keywords
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Aetiology
• 3. Infectious hypothesis
• 4. Immunologic theory
• 
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• 5. Therapeutic considerations
• 6. Conclusions
• Take-home messages
• References

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Risk factors for adverse reactions from contrast agents for computed tomography

Research article

Risk factors for adverse reactions from contrast agents for computed tomography

Daiki Kobayashi^1*, Osamu Takahashi², Takuya Ueda³, Gautam A Deshpande^4,5, Hiroko Arioka² and Tsuguya Fukui²

• *Corresponding author: Daiki Kobayashi daikoba@luke.or.jp

Author Affiliations

¹Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, St. Luke’s International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

²Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, St. Luke’s International Hospital, 9-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan

³Department of Radiology, St. Luke’s International Hospital, 9-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan

⁴St. Luke’s Life Science Institute, St. Luke’s International Hospital, 9-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-8560, Japan

⁵Department of Internal Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, Hawaii

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BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2013, 13:18 doi:10.1186/1472-6947-13-18

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6947/13/18

Received:	16 July 2012
Accepted:	21 January 2013
Published:	30 January 2013

© 2013 Kobayashi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Symptoms of an adverse reaction to contrast agents for computed tomography are diverse ranging, and sometimes serious. The goal of this study is to create a scoring rule to predict adverse reactions to contrast agents used in computed tomography.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of all adult patients undergoing contrast enhanced CT scan for 7 years. The subjects were randomly divided into either a derivation or validation group. Baseline data and clinically relevant factors were collected from the electronic chart. Primary outcome was any acute adverse reactions to contrast media, observed for during 24 hours after administration. All potential candidate predictors were included in a forward stepwise logistic regression model. Prediction scores were assigned based on β coefficient. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn, and the area under the curve (AUC) and incidence of acute adverse reactions at each point were obtained. The same process was performed in the validation group.

Results

36,472 patients underwent enhanced CT imaging: 20,000 patients in the derivation group and 16,472 in the validation group. A total of 409 (2.0%, 95% CI:1.9-2.3) and 347 (2.1%, 95% CI:1.9-2.3) acute adverse reactions were seen in the derivation and validation groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that prior adverse reaction to contrast agents, urticaria, an allergic history to drugs other than contrast agents, contrast agent concentration >70%, age <50 agent="" and="" contrast="" dose="" total="" years="">65 g were significant predictors of an acute adverse reaction. AUC was 0.70 (95% CI:0.67-0.73) and 0.67 (95% CI:0.64-0.70) in the derivation and validation groups.

Conclusions

We suggest a prediction model consisting of six predictors for acute adverse reactions to contrast agents used in CT.

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First case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis

Case Report  Open Access  |  | Full Text    |    Asia Pac Allergy. 2013 Jan;3(1):70-73. English. Published online 2013 Jan 30.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5415/apallergy.2013.3.1.70  Copyright © 2013. Asia Pacific Association of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology. A case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis Seung-Eun Lee,1,2,3 Suh-Young Lee,1,2,3 Eun-Jung Jo,1,2,3 Mi-Young Kim,1,2,3 Min-Suk Yang,1,2,4 Yoon-Seok Chang,1,2,3 and Sae-Hoon Kim1,2,3 1Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799, Korea. 2Institute of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul 110-799, Korea. 3Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 463-802, Korea. 4Department of Internal Medicine, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, Seoul 156-707, Korea.  Correspondence: Sae-Hoon Kim. Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 82 Gumi-ro 173 Beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 463-802, Korea. Tel: +82-31-787-7046, Fax: +82-31-787-4052,Email: shkrins@gmail.com  Received December 11, 2012; Accepted December 19, 2012. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Taurine is one of most abundant free amino acids in mammalian tissue. It has been used for various health functional foods as a main ingredient in food industry. A 33-year-old female patient repeatedly experienced generalized itching, urticaria, dyspnea and dizziness after drinking taurine-containing drinks. The patient showed positive response to oral challenge tests with taurine-containing drinks. The patient also showed positive response with synthetic taurine but not with natural taurine. Skin prick test and basophil activation test with the synthetic taurine were negative. To our knowledge, there has been no report of taurine-induced hypersensitivity reactions. We herein report the first case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis, especially by synthetic taurine.