Mollusk shell hypersensitivity pneumonitis

Article Abstract:

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis is a condition characterized by an inflammation of the lungs, and can be caused by foreign substances such as dust. This dust-induced inflammation is accompanied by the development of growths (benign tumors) in the lungs, and the formation of antibodies against the offending substance. Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system of the body which bind and inactivate foreign particles. Sea shells are often used as a material for the production of nacre buttons, and shell dust is produced during the refining process. This report describes two patients with hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by inhalation of sea shell dust; both women worked in a button factory cutting sea-snail shells into disks. After exposure to the dust, the two non-smoking patients developed a dry cough, fever, lack of strength and pain upon breathing. Accompanying these symptoms was a weight loss of 16 and 40 pounds, respectively. Chest x-rays that allow visualization of the lungs showed the development of lung nodules in both patients. Their conditions improved after a three-month absence from work. Both women had antibody levels against the sea-shell dust that were much higher than in the normal population. When re-exposed to very small amounts of an extract of sea shells, both patients showed a decrease in lung function and an increase in the number of white blood cells. Additionally, the symptoms produced by re-exposure to the shell dust mimicked the original symptoms seen in the button factory. This study supports the idea that sea shell dust caused by the manufacture of nacre buttons is an occupational hazard that can lead to the development of hypersensitivity pneumonitis. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Health aspects, Case studies, Causes of, Occupational diseases, Sewing, Mollusks, Shells, Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, Extrinsic allergic alveolitis

---

In-vitro assessment of a hypersensitivity syndrome associated with sorbinil

Article Abstract:

Serious adverse effects of drugs are often not apparent until they are tested in humans. One drug whose adverse effects were sufficiently severe in some patients is sorbinil, which was developed to retard some of the damage resulting from long-standing diabetes. Some of the side effects of sorbinil include rash with skin sloughing, generalized rash, muscle aches, low levels of white blood cells and platelets, and hepatitis. Because of sorbinil's structural similarity to the anticonvulsant drug phenytoin, experiments were designed to determine if sorbinil's side effects were produced by the same mechanism. Human lymphocytes, white blood cells, were cultured and exposed to sorbinil in conjunction with the human substances that metabolize such drugs. Sorbinil was found to be toxic to normal human lymphocytes, and was found to be even more toxic to human lymphocytes from patients who had experienced severe adverse reactions to the drug. Sorbinil was also particularly toxic to lymphocytes from patients who had experienced adverse reactions to phenytoin, suggesting that the mechanism is similar in the two drugs. The evidence indicates that some people metabolize both sorbinil and phenytoin to toxic substances, and interestingly, the parents of some of these people were shown to possess the ability to metabolize the two drugs to toxic substances, even in the absence of previous exposure to either drug, suggesting an inherited disorder of drug metabolism. The side effects of sorbinil were so severe and so common, occurring in up to 10 percent of experimental subjects, that the drug is no longer being actively researched. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Complications and side effects, Diabetes, Diabetes mellitus, Phenytoin

---

Persistence and Boosting of Bacille Calmette-Guerin-Induced Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity

Article Abstract:

Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination can reduce the predictive value of serial purified protein derivative (PPD) testing, with the lowest PPD predictive values in persons without known tuberculosis exposure who were vaccinated recently or many times with BCG. The results make complications in the ability to screen for tuberculosis. In observing 69 healthy adults after BCG vaccination, they had blood drawn and PPD tests done over one to three years. Their PPD responses were consistently high, 15 mm or higher even at the end of three years.

Physiological aspects, BCG vaccination

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Use of total-body electrical conductivity for the assessment of body composition in middle-aged and elderly individuals
• Abstracts: Nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis associated with a draining abscess. Tuberculosis and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome - Florida
• Abstracts: Use of total-body electrical conductivity for the assessment of body composition in middle-aged and elderly individuals. part 2
• Abstracts: Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic neoplasms associated with cysts. part 2
• Abstracts: Natural history of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. The clinical spectrum of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome associated with L-tryptophan ingestion: clinical features in 20 patients and aspects of pathophysiology

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.