Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0042109 (urticaria)
 6,569 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Considering the high incidence of chronic urticaria among female patients and the frequent difficulty in identifying the etiologic factor of factors the author decided to investigate the possible role of Candida albicans and other yeasts usually found as contaminants in certain foods and beverages or purposely cultivated for industrial products, as the sensitizing agents leading to the clinical picture of chronic urticaria. One hundred female patients with urticaria which had persisted for more than 6 weeks were selected and investigated, disregarding those with dermographism or cholinergic and cold urticaria. Aside from a careful history and laboratory tests to complement the physical examination that could rule out chronic bacterial infectious foci, intestinal parasitic infestation and thyroid disorders, intradermal skin tests with standard doses of Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other common environmental and food allergens were done. The patients' age ranged from 4 to 70 years. The skin tests sites were examined for Type I reactions at 15 and 20 minutes; for Type III reactions at 8 and 12 hours; and for Type IV reactions at 48 and 72 hours. When tested with Candida albicans antigen, 35% had Type I/III reactions and 60% presented Type IV reaction. When Saccharomyces cerevisiae antigen was used for testing, 29% had Type I/III reactions and none presented Type IV. Forty-nine of the sixty patients who presented Type IV reaction to Candida albicans had in the past significant vaginal discharge (or vaginal symptoms: burning, itching) that obliged the patients to consult a gynecologist, but only ten had stained smears and cultures from the vaginal secretions and four were told to have a monilia vaginal infection confirmed by the microbiological tests, although forty of them received Nistatin therapy at the time of the gynecological complaints. At the time the patients were seen by the allergist, complaining about urticaria, only four had symptoms and signs of monilia infection and were confirmed by culture: one presented oral moniliasis following broad-spectrum antibiotic, two had vaginal moniliasis developing right after their menstrual period; one had intestinal and cutaneous manifestations (perineal and crural) developing also after broad-spectrum antibiotic therapy. All the four patients had exacerbation of the urticaria while undergoing the monilia infection. After 1-2 weeks of elimination diet, each patient was challenged with yeasts-containing foods (bread, buns, sausages, beer, wines, grapes, cheese, vinegar, tomato catsup). Twenty-five patients (71%) of the group who positively reacted with a Type I/III reaction when tested with Candida antigen, showed a positive provocation test (reappearance of urticaria) and twenty patients (69%) of the group who reacted with Saccharomyces had a positive challenge test...
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PMID:[Hypersensitivity to "Candida albicans" and other fungi in patients with chronic urticaria]. 77 52

Seven patients who received a lysozyme, nystatin, and tetracycline containing vaginal suppository because of suspected vaginal infection, developed local or systemic allergic reactions. The coincidence of the symptoms with the repeated use of the suppository as well as skin and lymphocyte transformation tests indicated that the lysozyme in the suppository was responsible for the allergic reactions. This lysozyme preparation contained additional egg proteins, which contributed to the allergic reaction in certain patients: three patients with a previous history of egg allergy and serologic and/or skin test evidence for egg-white sensitization developed the allergic reaction after the first suppository. Four patients had urticaria or anaphylaxis after treatment for at least three days; none of these four patients developed egg allergy. Five of seven individuals had positive skin tests (prick or scratch) to ovomucoid and lysozyme, but none of the patients had lysozyme-specific IgE in the circulation. All seven patients, with or without egg allergy, showed vigorous T cell responses to purified lysozyme and partly to other egg-white proteins in the lymphocyte transformation test, which was absent in controls. Vaginal suppositories that contain lysozyme and other contaminating egg white proteins can either elicit allergic reactions in patients with a preexisting egg white allergy or induce sensitization to lysozyme and other egg white components.
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PMID:Allergy to lysozyme/egg white-containing vaginal suppositories. 147 86