Rhino Conjunctivitis and Asthma Among Seafood Processing Workers in Greenland. A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: The fishing- and the seafood processing industries are the largest industrial sectors in Greenland. Despite this, only a few cases of occupational diseases in this industry have been reported to the Danish Labor Market Insurance. Occupational asthma and allergy are well-known occupational diseases in the seafood processing industry worldwide and underreporting of occupational diseases in Greenland is suspected.Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between job exposures and occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis in workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry and to compare the prevalence of sensitization by type and degree of exposure to snow crab, shrimp, fish, and the fish parasite, Anisakis simplex.Methods: Data from 382 Greenlandic seafood processing workers were collected during 2016–2018. Data included questionnaire answers, lung function measurements, skin prick tests, and blood samples with ImmunoCAP. For all analyses, p < 0.05 was considered the level of significance.Results: 5.5% of the workers had occupational asthma and 4.6% had occupational rhino conjunctivitis. A large proportion of the workers were sensitized to allergens specific to the workplace; 18.1% to snow crab, 13.6% to shrimp, 1.4% to fish, and 32.6% to the fish parasite, A. simplex. We found a dose-response relationship between the risk of being sensitized to snow crab and A. simplex and years of exposure to the allergens in the seafood processing industry.Conclusion: This study showed that a considerable proportion of workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry had occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis. Additionally, the study showed high sensitization levels toward snow crab, shrimp, and the fish parasite, A. simplex. This supports the hypothesis of a considerable degree of underreporting of occupational allergic airway disease in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry. Prospectively, it is important to inform workers, leaders, and health care professionals of the health problems and the law on worker's compensation, and to initiate preventive actions at factory and trawler level.

Dupilumab elicits a favorable response in type-2 inflammatory comorbidities of severe atopic dermatitis

Background This case is the first report describing rapid, successful treatment of severe atopic dermatitis (AD) and comorbid type-2 inflammatory diseases in the same patient, with dupilumab treatment, with no side-effects. Case presentation We report on effects of dupilumab in a patient with severe AD, a long-standing history of a mild, perennial allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, moderate asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). Conclusions Patients suffering from AD, asthma, allergic rhinitis and CRSwNP may be eligible for dupilumab single treatment that is possibly advantageous also from the pharmaco-economic standpoint.

Genotype Associations with the Different Phenotypes of Atopic Dermatitis in Children

This study deals with detecting the associations of atopic dermatitis’ (AD) phenotypes in children: alone or combined with seasonal allergic rhino-conjunctivitis (SARC) and/or perennial allergic rhinitis (PAR), and/or with bronchial asthma (BA) with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of filaggrin (FLG), thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) and orsomucoid-like-1 protein 3 (ORMDL3) genes. Male and female pediatric patients aged from 3 to 18 years old were recruited into the main (AD in different combinations with SARC, PAR, BA) and control groups (disorders of digestives system, neither clinical nor laboratory signs of atopy). Patients were genotyped for SNP of rs_7927894 FLG, rs_11466749 TSLP, rs_7216389 ORMDL3 variants. Statistically significant associations of the increased risk were detected of AD combined with SARC and/or PAR and AD combined with BA (possibly, SARC and/or PAR) with C/T rs_7927894 FLG and T/T rs_7216389 ORMDL3 genotypes. Genotype C/C rs_7927894 FLG significantly decreases the risk of AD combined with SARC and/or PAR by 2.56 fold. Several genotypes’ associations had a trend to significance: C/C rs_7216389 ORMDL3 decreases and C/T rs_7216389 ORMDL3 increases the risk for developing AD alone phenotype; A/G rs_11466749 TSLP decreases the risk of AD combined with BA (possibly, SARC and/or PAR) phenotype development.

Allergenic Sensitization to pollen extracts in allergic patients. General “Calixto García” University Hospital, 2017.

Background: Nowadays, the allergic diseases are affecting the population at worldwide level and Cuba does not escape to this, inside the aeroallergens that trigger the crises we can find the pollens. The main goals of this study were to determine the allergenic sensitization to pollens in allergic patients and their relationship with the presence of allergic diseases.Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive observational study was performed in patients suffering from asthma, rhinitis, allergic rhino-conjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis and allergic conjunctivitis. All patients underwent an allergic clinical history and skin prick test with allergenic extracts of Helianthus annus, Cosmos bipinnatus, Cynodon dactylon, Quercus sp, Eucalyptus sp . Frequencies and percentages were determined for its analysis.Results: Thirty-three patients were studied. The average age was found in the third decade of life, with a predominance in women. More than half of the patients were sensitized to pollens and 24.24% of them were polysensitized; the most frequent pollen was the cynodon dactylon . The patients with rhinitis were the most sensitized with the pollens.Conclusions: There is sensitization to pollen in our patients.

The Efficacy and Safety of Bilastine in the Treatment of Perennial Allergic Rhinitis in Patients with Moderate and Severe Forms of the Disease. Comparison of bilastine 20 mg with desloratadine 5 mg Сергей

Background: Bilastine is a new non-sedating H1 antihistamine approved for the symptomatic treatment of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) and urticaria in adults and children over 12 years of age. In this paper, bilastine was compared with desloratadine in the treatment of various forms of allergic rhino-conjunctivitis classified according to the ARIA recommendations.Materials and Methods: This was an international, multi-centre, open-label, prospective randomized, parallel-group, phase III study which enrolled a total of 226 patients with ARC. The diagnosis of the allergic rhino-conjunctivitis was established on the basis of nasal and non-nasal symptoms and confirmed by the skin prick test. Patients were randomized to one of the two treatment groups: bilastine 20 mg daily or desloratadine 5 mg daily.Results: The results for the primary and secondary endpoints showed a comparable reduction in TSS, NSS, and NNSS from the baseline to the end of the treatment between the treatment groups, with slightly better effects for bilastine. Additional tests carried out in the subgroup of patients with moderate / severe persistent (MSP) ARC demonstrated comparable results for the bilastine and desloratadine groups regarding the mean change in TSS from the baseline until the 28th day, except for the sneezing score, for which bilastine showed the higher response (-1.60 ± 0.60 vs. -1.39 ± 0.63), and a statistically significant difference between the treatment groups regarding AUC for TSS ( -26.07 [95% CI: -48.6, -3.53] p = 0.024), NNSS (-10.51 [95% CI:-19.42, -1.59] p = 0.021), the sneezing score (-4.79 [95% CI:-9.06, -0.51] p = 0.028) and the ocular redness score (-5.50 [95% CI: -8.91, -2.08] p = 0.02).Conclusion: In general, bilastine and desloratadine showed a comparable efficacy profile in the treatment of ARC; however, the results obtained in the subgroup of patients with moderate / severe persistent symptoms indicate that bilastine has a stronger therapeutic effect