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  • Elliott Moran posted an update 1 day, 9 hours ago

    BACKGROUND The geographical variation and temporal increase in prevalence of food sensitization (FS), suggest environmental influences. OBJECTIVE To investigate how demographics, environment, and infant diet are associated with FS in children and adults, focusing on early-life exposures. METHODS Data on demographics, childhood and adult environmental exposures (including, amongst others, sibship size, day care, pets, farm environment, and smoking), and infant diet (including breastfeeding, and timing of introduction to infant formula and solids), were collected from 2196 school-age children and 2185 adults completing an extensive questionnaire and blood sampling in the cross-sectional pan-European EuroPrevall project. Multivariable logistic regression was applied to determine associations between the exposure variables and sensitization to foods commonly implicated in food allergy (sIgE≥0.35 kU/L). Secondary outcomes were inhalant sensitization and primary (non-cross-reactive) FS. RESULTS Dog ownership in early childhood was inversely associated with childhood FS (OR 0.65 [95%-CI 0.48-0.90]), as was higher gestational age at delivery (OR 0.93 [95%-CI 0.87-0.99] per week increase in age). Lower age and male sex were associated with higher prevalence of adult FS (OR 0.97 [95%-CI 0.96-0.98] per year increase in age, and 1.39 [95%-CI 1.12-1.71] for male sex). No statistically significant associations were found between other evaluated environmental determinants and childhood or adult FS, nor between infant diet and childhood FS, although early introduction of solids did show a trend towards prevention of FS. CONCLUSION Dog ownership seems to protect against childhood FS, but independent effects of other currently conceived environmental and infant dietary determinants on FS in childhood or adulthood, could not be confirmed. BACKGROUND Because of a high risk to develop fatal anaphylaxis, early detection of IgE-dependent allergy is of particular importance in patients with mastocytosis. OBJECTIVE We examined whether microarray-based screening for allergen-reactive IgE (allergen-chip) is a sensitive and robust approach to detect specific IgE in mastocytosis patients. METHODS Forty-two patients were analyzed, including 4 with cutaneous mastocytosis, 2 with mastocytosis in the skin, and 36 with systemic mastocytosis. In addition, sera from an age- and sex-matched control cohort (n=42) were analyzed. RESULTS In 15/42 patients with mastocytosis (35.7%), specific IgE was detected by allergen-chip profiling. Ves v 5 and Bet v 1 were the most frequently detected allergens (Ves v 5 16.7% of patients; Bet v 1 11.9% of patients). Allergen-reactivity was confirmed by demonstrating upregulation of CD203c on blood basophils upon exposure to the respective allergen(s) in these patients. Specific IgE was identified by chip studies in 11/26 mastocytosis patients with mediator-related symptoms (42.3%) and in 4/14 mastocytosis patients without symptoms (28.6%). In the cohort with known allergy, 9/9 patients (100%) had a positive allergen-chip result. In mastocytosis patients without a known allergy (n=31), the chip identified 6 positive cases (19.5%). The prevalence of chip-positive patients was slightly lower in the mastocytosis group (35.7%) compared to an age- and sex-matched controls (40.5%). CONCLUSION Although specific IgE may not be detectable in all sensitized patients with mastocytosis, allergy chip-profiling is a reliable screen approach for the identification of patients with mastocytosis suffering from IgE-dependent allergies. How the human brain uses self-generated auditory information during speech production is rather unsettled. Current theories of language production consider a feedback monitoring system that monitors the auditory consequences of speech output and an internal monitoring system, which makes predictions about the auditory consequences of speech before its production. To gain novel insights into underlying neural processes, we investigated the coupling between neuromagnetic activity and the temporal envelope of the heard speech sounds (i.e., cortical tracking of speech) in a group of adults who 1) read a text aloud, 2) listened to a recording of their own speech (i.e., playback), and 3) listened to another speech recording. Reading aloud was here used as a particular form of speech production that shares various processes with natural speech. During reading aloud, the reader’s brain tracked the slow temporal fluctuations of the speech output. Specifically, auditory cortices tracked phrases ( less then 1 ​Hz) but tf-generation of connected speech. BACKGROUND & AIMS Inter-platform variation in liver stiffness evaluation (LSE) could hinder dissemination and clinical implementation of new ultrasound methods. We aimed to determine whether measurements of liver stiffness by bi-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) with a Supersonic Imagine apparatus are comparable to those made by vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE). METHODS We collected data from 1219 consecutive patients with chronic liver disease who underwent LSE by VCTE and 2D-SWE (performed by blinded operators), on the same day, at a single center in France from September 2011 through June 2019. We assessed the ability of liver stiffness value distributions and 2D-SWE performances to identify patients with compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) according to the Baveno VI criteria, based on VCTE cut-off values. RESULTS VCTE and 2D-SWE values correlated (Pearson’s correlation coefficient, 0.882; P less then .0001; Lin concordance coefficient, 0.846; P less then .0001). The median stiffness values were 6.7 kPa with VCTE (interquartile range, 4.8-11.6 kPa) and 7.1 kPa with 2D-SWE (interquartile range, 5.4-11.1 kPa) (P=.736). Epigenetics inhibitor 2D-SWE values were slightly higher in the low percentiles and lower in the high percentiles; the best match with VCTE values were at approximately 7-9 kPa. The area under the curve of 2D-SWE for identifying of VCTE values below 10 was 0.964 (95% CI, 0.952-0.976) and for VCTE values above 15 kPa was 0.976 (95% CI, 0.963-0.988), with Youden index-associated cut-off values of 9.5 and 13kPa and best accuracy cut-off values of 10 kPa and 14 kPa, respectively. A 2D-SWE cut-off value of 10 kPa detected VCTE values below 10k Pa with 92% sensitivity, 87% specificity, and 91% accuracy. CONCLUSIONS Measurement of liver stiffness by VCTE or 2D-SWE produces comparable results. 2D-SWE accurately identifies patients with cACLD according to the Baveno VI criteria based on VCTE cut-off values. A 10 kPa 2D-SWE cut-off value can be used to rule out cACLD.

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