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    Respiratory allergy to nickel. Description of an atipical clinical case

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    BACKGROUND: Exposure to nickel sulphate, other than contact dermatitis, can potentially cause respiratory symptoms. Although few cases of occupational rhinitis and asthma are reported in literature, a prolonged exposure can determine sensitization and evolution to respiratory symptoms. OBJECTIVES: Clinical evaluation of a case of occupational rhinitis and asthma due to nickel sulphate. METHODS: A female worker, aged 43 years, has been occupationally exposed to nickel for 22 years. After 1 year she experienced asthma, apparently not work related. She treated the respiratory symptoms for many years, but a slow and progressive increase of the disease was observed. During the last five years a straight relationship between work and symptoms was observed. On-off test was positive. The diagnosis of occupational respiratory disease was based on the work-related symptoms and the specific nasal challenge test result. RESULTS: An early response was observed with nasal symptoms (score 4), increase of anterior nasal airflow resistance (33%), severe dyspnea, haematic eosinophilia, and fall in FEV-1 of 18%. CONCLUSIONS: The prolonged exposure to nickel determined impairment of respiratory function. Nasal challenge, more safe and useful than bronchial challenge, can be considered gold standard for the diagnosis of occupational rhinitis and asthma due to occupational allergens

    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
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