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Query: UMLS:C0851341 (infestation)
 10,121 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The clinical and immunological features of fifteen cases of cryptogenic pulmonary eosinophilia are reported. There were ten women (mean age 35.4 years) and five men (mean age 42 years). Eight gave a previous history of asthma and seven had none. Thirteen of the fifteen patients had negative skin test to common allergens. Many features of a systemic illness were present in the asthmatic and non-asthmatic groups including anaemia, weight loss, fever and a grossly raised ESR. An absolute polymorphonuclear leucocytosis was frequent as well as the obligatory increase in blood eosinophils used as one of our criteria for inclusion. Hepatomegaly (three cases), splenomegaly (four cases) and hilar node enlargement (one case) were seen in the group without asthma. Evidence of renal involvement or necrotizing vasculitis was notably absent and the response to small doses of corticosteroids was dramatic. Immunologically the striking feature was a disproportionate increase in blood eosinophils compared with only minor elevations in the total serum IgE levels. This stands in contrast to patients with bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and helminth infestation. Studies of cytophilic antibodies using histamine liberation after challenge with antibodies to immunoglobulin sub-classes in six patients showed a marked increase in IgG2 and lesser increases of IgE and IgG3. No evidence of antibodies specific to A. fumigatus was found. The amount of cytophilic antibody was also in contrast to that found in bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.
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PMID:Cryptogenic pulmonary eosinophilia. 5 41

The main patient series consisted of 415 Egyptians attending the Cairo Cancer Institute and comprising 286 bladder cancer, 97 breast cancer, 14 head and neck cancer and 18 gastrointestinal cancer cases. Also included in the study were 36 patients with active schistosomiasis and 89 health controls. Serum IgA, IgG, IgG subclasses, IgE, Schistosoma and Ascaris-specific IgE (RAST) and the acute-phase protein CRP were measured in all, or sub-sets, of the main patient group. The well-established increase in IgE and IgG levels, and the more recently reported increase in the levels of IgG3 and IgG4 subclasses in patients with schistosomiasis, were also found in bilharzial bladder cancer, indicating that humoral immunity persists in cancer-bearing patients. However, the plasma protein profile in bilharzial bladder cancer is further modified by significant increases in the levels of IgA, IgG, IgG1, IgG2 and CRP when compared to levels in patients with Bilharzia in the absence of neoplastic change. Patients with cancers not associated with parasitic infestation also had significant increases in their serum levels of IgG1, IgG2, IgG, IgE and CRP when compared to healthy Egyptian controls, but 41% of these non-bladder cancer patients showed IgE responses to previous parasitic infestations suggesting that any immunological response to cancer would be on the background of a variable non-specific increase of IgE.
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PMID:Immunoglobulin A, G and E levels in Egyptians with cancer: influence of schistosomiasis. 673 23

The authors describe the immunological profile of BALB/c mice with Mite-Associated Ulcerative Dermatitis (MAUD)-like disease, due to Myocoptes musculinus (Koch 1844) infestation. The disease probably involves allergic mechanisms and is characterized by erythematous and pruritic skin lesions, widespread hair loss, lymphadenopathy, lymphocytopenia, granulocytosis and wasting. Affected individuals had much reduced numbers of pre-B and B cells in bone marrow and B cells in blood; decreased T-cell numbers in peripheral lymphoid organs and blood; hypergammaglobulinaemia with selective increases of IgG1, IgE and IgA, and depletion on IgM and IgG3, the same isotype distribution being detected in splenic plasmocytes; qualitative modifications of the serum antibody reactivity pattern; and increased production of IL-4 with decreased IL-2 production after in vitro polyclonal stimulation of T cells. Taken together, these results suggest that infestation by M. musculinus in BALB/c mice leads to a significant immunological disorder resulting in a T-helper-2 (Th-2) type response, with marked systemic consequences. This pathological condition may thus provide a useful model system for the immunobiological perturbation associated with chronic allergic disease.
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PMID:Murine acariasis. II. Immunological dysfunction and evidence for chronic activation of Th-2 lymphocytes. 865 48

Infestations of humans with the parasitic nematode T. canis are common in both developing and industrialized countries. Most infestations induce a clinically inapparent course of infection, however, severe clinical manifestations, i.e. visceral larva migrans (VLM) or ocular larva migrans (OLM) syndromes are observed. To find an explanation for the different courses of toxocarosis we examined several serological parameters: the expression of (i) specific IgE (Immunoblot, IB), (ii) specific IgG subclasses (IgG1-4, ELISA and the formation of (iii) IgE/anti-IgE immune complexes. Serum samples were obtained from persons with symptomatic (VLM, OLM) and asymptomatic course (AS) of the infestation. As antigen, T. canis excretory/secretory (TES) antigen from L3 larvae was used. Reactivity of IgE against SDS-PAGE separated TES antigens was marginally higher in toxocarosis patients (35%) than in asymptomatics (24%), but without statistical significance. TES-specific IgG (1-4), predominant subclass in all three groups was IgG1, followed by IgG2, IgG4 and IgG3. Subclass IgG1, 2, 4 showed significant differences between patients with VLM associated symptoms and asymptomatic persons (P < 0.001) but not between patients with OLM associated symptoms and asymptomatics. Significantly elevated levels of IgE/anti-IgE immune complexes were detected in sera of patients with symptomatic course of the disease, both VLM and OLM (P < 0.001). Whereas specific IgG may act via antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity mechanisms, IgE/anti-IgE immune complexes might possibly participate in VLM and OLM by inducing type III hypersensitivity.
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PMID:Toxocara infestations in humans: symptomatic course of toxocarosis correlates significantly with levels of IgE/anti-IgE immune complexes. 971 92