The conjunctival provocation test (CPT) is a diagnostic procedure for testing airborne allergens causing allergic rhinoconjunctivitis [1,2]. It has been thoroughly evaluated with regard to its precision [3] and compared with nasal provocation tests [4]. Nowadays, the CPT is used for evaluation of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis [5,6] and is accepted by regulatory authorities as an outcome paramete...

BACKGROUND Histamine is detected in high concentrations in the airways during an allergic asthma response. In a murine model of allergic asthma, JNJ 7777120, an antagonist at the histamine H(4) receptor, reduces asthmatic symptoms, while the histamine H(1) receptor-selective antagonist mepyramine is virtually without effect. In the present study, we analyzed the effect of combined antagonism at...

PURPOSE The clinical significance of post-procedural atrial premature beats immediately after catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) has not been clearly determined. We hypothesized that the provocation of immediate recurrence of atrial premature beats (IRAPB) and additional ablation improves the clinical outcome of AF ablation. MATERIALS AND METHODS We enrolled 200 patients with AF (...

BACKGROUND The value of impulse oscillometry (IOS) for bronchial provocation testing is poorly defined. We investigated the positive threshold derived from the parameters and diagnostic power of IOS for asthma with the leukotriene D(4) bronchial provocation test. METHODS We enrolled 62 subjects with asthma and 21 healthy subjects. IOS was employed to perform the leukotriene D(4) bronchial pro...

Allergic rhinitis is a frequent immunological disease affecting about 10-25% of the total population. The pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis is presumed to involve an IgE-mediated mechanism. Careful patient history, together with the skin prick test or RAST, usually allows an easy diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. In other cases it may be necessary to confirm diagnosis by the nasal provocation tes...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT In a small prospective study assessing 10 symptomatic and 10 asymptomatic subjects, Schellhas et al. compared cervical discography to magnetic resonance imaging. Within that study he reported on the distribution of pain for the C3-C4 to C6-C7 levels. Four years later, Grubb and Ellis reported retrospective data from his 12-year experience using cervical discography from C2-C3...

A 9-year-old boy was referred in July 1982 because of a 4-month history of headache in the frontal area. He had also developed a visual disturbance. The physical examination was normal. The visual field test showed bitemporal hemianopsia and his visual acuity was Vd 0.5 and Vs 0.2. A mild optic nerve atrophy without papilledema was seen in the left optic fundus. Endocrine evaluation demonstrate...

While previous studies successfully identified the core neural substrates of the animal subtype of specific phobia, only few and inconsistent research is available for dental phobia. These findings might partly relate to the fact that, typically, visual stimuli were employed. The current study aimed to investigate the influence of stimulus modality on neural fear processing in dental phobia. Th...