SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND Allergic rhinitis (AR) exhibits a prevalence of approx. 20% in Germany and causes enormous costs in the health care system. Specific immunotherapy (SIT) is considered to be the only potentially causal therapy for AR and mainly administered by two routes, subcutaneous (SCIT) and sublinguale (SLIT). SIT promises a reduction of symptoms and the need for medication in patients...

A quantum theory of self induced transparency (SIT) solitons is developed with the quantum effects of ensemble atoms taken into account. For the first time one is able to accurately calculate the detectable squeezing ratio for non-optimum homodyne local oscillators. Suggestions for experimental SIT soliton squeezing detection and intersoliton correlation generation are given. ©2007 Optical Soci...

Allergic diseases basically are immunologic disorders related to the activation of a distinct cytokine pattern in T cells, including increased secretion of certain allergic in ̄ammatory cytokines, particularly IL-4, IL5, and/or IL-13 (1±3). Whereas the symptoms of immediate and late-type allergic reactions can be ameliorated by various pharmacologic treatments, allergen-speci®c immunotherapy (SI...

BACKGROUND Due to the progressive nature of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), antidiabetic treatment needs to be continuously intensified to avoid long-term complications. In T2DM patients on either basal insulin-supported oral therapy (BOT) or supplementary insulin therapy (SIT) presenting with HbA1c values above individual targets for 3-6 months, therapy should be intensified. This study inves...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To date, most structural brain imaging studies in individuals with nonspecific low back pain have evaluated volumetric changes. These alterations are particularly found in sensorimotor-related areas. Although it is suggested that specific measures, such as cortical surface area and cortical thickness, reflect different underlying neural architectures, the literature regar...

Allergen specific immunotherapy (SIT) using house dust mite (HDM) extracts has been performed mainly with patients of asthma and allergic rhinitis. In the meanwhile, there has been a long debate on the efficacy of SIT in atopic dermatitis (AD) with only a few double-blind placebo-controlled trials. However, several randomized controlled trials of SIT in AD revealed significant improvement of cl...

BACKGROUND Some studies have suggested that specific immunotherapy (SIT) may cause de novo sensitization to allergenic proteins to which patients were not previously allergic. This event might theoretically involve cross-reacting pollen allergens, such as profilin or polcalcins, posing a risk of SIT-induced polysensitization to pollens in patients who were originally monosensitized. OBJECTIVE...

Human motion is a daily and rhythmic activity. The exoskeleton concept is a very positive scientific approach for human rehabilitation in case of lower limb impairment. Although the exoskeleton shows potential, it is not yet applied extensively in clinical rehabilitation. In this research, a fuzzy based control algorithm is proposed for lower limb exoskeletons during sit-to-stand and stand-to-s...