OBJECTIVES The primary objective of the study was to investigate how patterns of skin-to-skin care might impact infant early cognitive and communication performance. DESIGN This was a retrospective cohort study. SETTING This study took place in a level-IV all-referral neonatal intensive care unit in the Midwest USA specialising in the care of extremely preterm infants. PARTICIPANTS Data w...

Sens-it-iv is an FP6 Integrated Project that finished in March 2011 after 66 months of activity, thanks to 12 million € of funding. The ultimate goal of the Sens-it-iv project was the development of a set of in vitro methods for the assessment of the skin and respiratory sensitization potential of chemicals and proteins. The level of development was intended to be at the point to enter the pre-...

other laboratory values were unremarkable. A biopsy specimen was not taken. The patient was treated with 0.05% topical desonide lotion for the rash, the antihistamines hydroxyzine and levocetirizine for the pruritus, and empirical antibiotics for possible systemic infection. On day 4, his fever had subsided completely and all blood culture results were negative. On day 6, generalized cutaneous ...

There have been several highly significant achievements in the area of alternatives for skin corrosivity testing in the last three years, most notably: (a) the validation, and subsequent endorsement, of two replacement alternative tests for skin corrosivity (the rat skin transcutaneous electrical resistance [TER] and EPISKINtrade mark human skin model assays) by the European Centre for the Vali...

The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) Skin Irritation Task Force, established in November 1996, prepared a report on the current status of the development and validation of alternative tests for skin irritation and corrosion in 1998 (1). The report focused on the identification of appropriate non-animal tests for predicting human skin irritation, which could be c...

The nonstinging house ant, Monomorium pharaonis (pharaoh ant), was recently identified as a cause of respiratory allergy. This study was performed to evaluate the extent of sensitization to pharaoh ant, and its clinical significance in asthmatic patients. We carried out skin prick tests in 318 patients with asthma. Specific IgE (sIgE) to pharaoh ant was measured by ELISA, and cross-reactivity w...

This paper reports our recent study on the preconditioning effects and stress relaxation behaviour of fresh swine skin. Uniaxial cyclic tensile loading and stress relaxation tests were performed with swine skin samples in two different directions to study the effects of fibre direction on mechanical properties. With stress relaxation tests, skin samples were loaded to different strains to obser...

Background: Skin prick testing is the most common diagnostic tool used by allergists. There are limited, international rules on interpreting and reporting skin test results in a meaningful way. Aim: This communication describes methods to express the results of skin prick tests in a meaningful way. It is recommended to use allergen extracts with defined composition, potency and stability, to ke...

BACKGROUND Penicillin is no longer the most commonly prescribed beta-lactam, and the pattern of reactions has changed. We studied the diagnostic value of skin testing in penicillin-allergic subjects from a population where benzylpenicillin is not now the most frequently used beta-lactam. METHODS Patients with a history of immediate allergic reactions to penicillins were studied with: skin tes...

BACKGROUND Moisturisers prevent and treat dry skin. They can also protect sensitive skin, improve skin tone and texture, and mask imperfections. Herbal medicines or their extracts have been available as topical formulations and cosmetics. Arctium lappa L. (Asteraceae) has been used to treat inflammatory disorders and various skin problems. It could be a candidate herbal medicine for treating dr...