104,889 research outputs found

    Glyoxal is an important allergen for (medical care) cleaning staff

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    While disinfection is essential in medical practice, it carries the risk of serious adverse effects, including allergic contact dermatitis. To assess the current importance of glyoxal [CAS 107-22-2] as occupational allergen, a retrospective descriptive analysis of records of an occupational dermatitis clinic in Osnabruck and of national surveillance data of the Information Network of Departments of Dermatology (IVDK) in Germany and Austria was performed. Of 189 highly selected patients with occupational dermatitis tasted with glyoxal (1% in water or, as trimer, 1% in petrolatum) in Osnabruck, 11 had positive reactions to glyoxal, which were occupationally relevant in 9 cases. Causative occupations included mainly nursing and room cleaning. In a less selected population of 2626 additional patients tested in other centres of the IVDK, 40 further positive reactions to glyoxal were observed. Concomitant sensitisation to glutardialdehyde and formaldehyde, respectively, was frequently observed. In conclusion, glyoxal should be tested in all patients with contact dermatitis working in occupations with possible exposure to respective disinfecting/cleaning agents

    Contact allergy to ingredients of hair cosmetics in female hairdressers and clients - an 8-year analysis of IVDK data

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    Not only hairdressers, but also their clients or home-users of hair cosmetic products may become sensitized to one of the product constituents. The present analysis addresses the question whether the pattern of sensitization is different in these 2 groups and includes female patients who consulted with the participating centres of the IVDK (http://www.ivdk.org) between 1995 and 2002, and in whom hair cosmetics have been considered as being causative of their contact dermatitis. Among these, 2 subgroups were identified: (i) patients, currently or previously working as hairdressers, diagnosed with occupational skin disease (H, n = 884) and (ii) patients who never worked as hairdressers, i.e. clients (C, n = 1217). Previous atopic eczema was twice as common among H, who were also much younger (median age 24 versus 46 in C). Analysis of sensitization frequencies and patterns showed the well-known decline of contact allergy to glyceryl monothioglycolate (GMTG) in H from 31.2% to 8.5%. Among the C, 1.7% were allergic to GMTG. Concerning p-phenylenediamine, a steady decline from 27.6% to 17.2% was observed in H, while no trend was found in C (12.6% and 16.6% in the first and the last 2-year period, respectively). Conversely, a very slight decline of p-toluenediamine sensitization was observed in H (from 29.5% to 24.8%), while at the same time a significant increase was noted in C (from 8.7% to 16.7%). A slighter increase was also noted with ammonium persulfate in C (3.1-6.8%), while the proportion of H sensitized remained largely constant at about 26%

    Visual Exploration of Pathology Images by a Discrete Wavelet Transform Preprocessed Locally Linear Embedding.

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    Varini C, Lessmann B, Degenhard A, Hans VH, Nattkemper TW. Visual Exploration of Pathology Images by a Discrete Wavelet Transform Preprocessed Locally Linear Embedding. In: Handels H, Ehrhardt J, Horsch A, Meinzer H-P, Tolxdorff T, Gesellschaft für Informatik, eds. Bildverarbeitung für die Medizin. Informatik aktuell. Berlin : Springer; 2006: 66-70

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Contact allergy to preservatives. Analysis of IVDK data 1996-2009

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    P>Background Understanding the early events of the immune response, through the activation of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) by Toll-like receptor (TLR)9-sensing, could contribute to the evaluation of immune dysregulation in chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU). Objectives We decided to investigate innate immunity in CIU and the mechanisms implicated in the modulation of interferon (IFN)-alpha production by pDC upon TLR9 activation. Methods Patients with CIU (n = 31) and healthy control subjects (HC, n = 36) were enrolled in the study. Leucocytes cultured with the TLR9 ligand, CpG type A, or with inhibitory-oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) were used to determine IFN-alpha secretion by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Enumeration of pDC, intracellular IFN-alpha and signal transducers and activators of transcription protein (STAT) (1 and 4) phosphorylation were assessed by flow cytometry. TLR9 and regulatory factor-7 mRNA transcripts were evaluated by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Evidence of pDC in the skin lesions of patients was analysed with immunohistochemistry staining. Results The findings show a decreased IFN-alpha secretion induced by CpG A by leucocytes, due to the diminished IFN-alpha expression on pDC in CIU. It was mediated by TLR9-activation since inhibitory-ODN further suppressed TLR9-induced IFN-alpha secretion. A normal pDC percentage and degree of activation by the expression of costimulatory molecules was observed in CIU, with the rare presence of pDC in the skin lesion. In addition, an increased constitutive STAT1 phosphorylation on nonstimulated lymphocytes and a downregulation of TLR9 mRNA transcripts after CpG A activation were verified in patients with CIU. Conclusions The findings showed an innate immune response in CIU disturbed by impairment of the pDC response to TLR9 activation

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Aktuelle Kontaktallergene

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    Ever-changing exposure to contact allergens, partly due to statutory directives (e. g. nickel, chromate, methyldibromo glutaronitrile) or recommendations from industrial associations (e. g. hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde), requires on-going epidemiologic surveillance of contact allergy. In this paper, the current state with special focus in fragrances and preservatives is described on the basis of data of the Information Network of Departments of Dermatology (IVDK) of the year 2010. In 2010, 12,574 patients were patch tested in the dermatology departments belonging to the IVDK. Nickel is still the most frequent contact allergen. However the continuously improved EU nickel directive already has some beneficial effect; sensitization frequency in young women is dropping. In Germany, chromate-reduced cement has been in use now for several years, leading to a decline in chromate sensitization in brick-layers. Two fragrance mixes are part of the German baseline series; they are still relevant. The most important fragrances in these mixes still are oak moss absolute and hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde. However, in relation to these leading allergens, sensitization frequency to other fragrances contained in the mixes seems to be increasing. Among the preservatives, MCI/MI has not lost its importance as contact allergen, in contrast to MDBGN. Sources of MCI/MI sensitization obviously are increasingly found in occupational context. Methylisothiazolinone is a significant allergen in occupational settings, and less frequently in body care products
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