Sponsored By

Cashews trigger more severe allergic reactions than peanuts
Cashews appear to trigger more severe allergic reactions than peanuts in children, according to a study in Allergy. British scientists at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Norfolk, studied 141 children — 47 children with cashew allergy and 94 children with peanut allergy. The subjects with cashew reactions were eight times more likely to wheeze and almost 14 times more likely to have potentially severe cardiovascular symptoms, such as irregular heartbeat or lowered blood pressure. Among all the subjects, 10 with cashew allergies had a severe reaction, defined as extreme difficulty breathing and/or loss of consciousness, compared with one subject with peanut allergy.

Study: Indoor allergens don’t worsen asthma in inner-city adults
Sensitization to indoor allergens doesn’t appear to increase the severity of asthma among inner-city adults, according to a study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York evaluated 245 inner-city adults with persistent asthma, testing them for sensitization to cockroaches, dust mites, cats, mold and mice, and then assessing asthma control via a standardized questionnaire. About 62 percent were positive for at least one of the allergens, but the asthma control scores were not significantly worse among patients sensitized to indoor allergens.

Immunotherapy may help prevent asthma development
Specific immunotherapy may prevent children with allergic rhino conjunctivitis from developing asthma, according to a study in Allergy. Scientists from ALK-Abello, Horsholm, a Denmark-based company that develops allergy vaccines, investigated 147 subjects from 16 to 25, 10 years after they participated in the Preventive Allergy Treatment (PAT) study. Among 117 children who did not have asthma at the beginning of the study, those who received immunotherapy were 4.6 times more likely than those treated with placebo to remain without asthma 10 years later. In addition, those who received immunotherapy continued to have significant improvements in rhinoconjunctivitis and conjunctival sensitivity at the 10-year follow-up.

A message from James E. Mallette, Jr., speaker, House of Delegates

Call for resolutions

One of the major purposes of the House of Delegates (HOD) is the dissemination of information. This can be accomplished through resolutions and agenda items for discussion. We are particularly interested in messages pertaining to health-care reform.

Local, state and regional allergy societies are encouraged to submit resolutions for consideration of the House at its Nov. 9 meeting. To be eligible for consideration, resolutions must be received in the ACAAI office no later than Monday, Sept. 24, so they can be distributed to all Delegates and Alternate Delegates for review prior to the House of Delegates meeting. NOTE: Only ACAAI Fellows can submit and present resolutions to the House of Delegates.

Request for HOD nominations

The ACAAI HOD invites you to submit nominations for the Speaker of the House of Delegates, Vice Speaker and Recording Secretary. Deadline for receipt of nominations is Friday, Sept. 28.

The Nominating Committee (which does not include the current officers) will consider all nominees from various local, state and regional allergy societies and decide on two candidates for each of the three positions.

The nominees will be distributed to the delegates with the formal agenda of the House of Delegates meeting. On Friday, Nov. 9, in Dallas, the election of officers will take place.

Please send your nominations to Dianne K. Kubis, Associate Executive Director, ACAAI. Any potential nominee who wants a copy of the House of Delegates “Rules of Order” may obtain it from the HOD page on the ACAAI Web site.

I hope to see you at the House of Delegates meeting in Dallas. All are welcome.

Board Review Corner
Welcome to the Board Review Corner prepared by Soo Kim-Delio, M.D., Senior Representative of ACAAI’s fellows-in-training (FITs) to the Board of Regents. The Board Review Corner is your chance to test your Board preparedness.

To refer to a previous Board Review Corner, click the “FIT Archive” link in the left column.

Review Questions: Chapter 7 of Pediatric Allergy: Principles & Practices, edited by Donald Y.M. Leung, et al. Review questions were written by Drs. Bret Haymore and Soo Hee Kim-Delio, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.