Summary Immediate, type I, prick test reactions in man to purified fractions of Candida albicans group A were mediated by different classes of antibody. The allergens were the cell‐wall polysaccharide, mannan, and a ‘purified’ cytoplasmic protein fraction, free of mannan, prepared by passage through Sepharose‐concanavalin‐A. Passive transfer tests in the monkey gave immediate reactions, (1) to the purified, cytoplasmic, protein mediated by heat‐labile long‐term sensitizing antibody, and (2) to the polysaccharide, mannan, mediated by heat‐stable short‐term sensitizing antibody.

Occupational asthma caused by allergy to pigs' urine We report a case of asthma due to occupational exposure to pigs. The cause of the symptoms was exposure to the urine of the animals. This was proved by provoking acute asthma with an inhalation challenge of an extract of pigs' urine at a concentration of 1 g/l. On a second occasion this asthmatic response was blocked by prior treatment with 40 mg sodium cromoglycate (Intal). The patient's serum contained specific IgE antibody to the urine extract which was not found in unexposed controls. Case report The patient, a 21-year-old eczematous woman who enjoyed a vigorous sporting life, playing squash and hockey to a high standard, had not suffered respiratory symptoms since the age of 3. During her second year at university studying agricultural sciences her class visited a pig house. Within two to three minutes she had to leave because she felt as if she was being "stifled with a plastic bag." She took about an hour to recover her breath and within a few minutes her eczema had begun to itch, and this took a further two hours to settle. One year later, within five minutes after starting to watch a laparo-tomy on a pig, she again became short of breath. Her only other exposure to these animals had been during a visit to the pig house in her first year, when she remained symptomless. Skin-prick tests yielded positive reactions to grass, house-dust mite, horse, cat, dog, and pork extract. Pigs' urine (50 ml) was filtered, sterilised, and freeze dried as described1 and reconstituted in Coca's solution at 01 and 1 0 g/l. Skin testing produced a 3 mm weal with the solution at 1 0 g/l. After inhaling a nebulised dose (0-0015 g) for one minute her forced expiratory volume in one second (Vitalograph) fell by 70 % from 2-3 to 0-7 1. The same test was conducted one week later after 40 mg of sodium cromoglycate had been given by inhalation 10 minutes before the challenge. On this occasion her forced expiratory volume in one second fell by nearly 28 %0 from 2-5 to 1-8 1. In each case recordings were made for a further five hours throughout-Chcallenge 3 eDSCG (40 mg). Oi beeNo trestment 0 c 2-E '-1 0 w2 0 102030 40 5060 2 3 4 5 6 Time (minutes) Time (hours) Results of two inhalation tests performed one week apart. On each occasion subject inhaled nebulised pigs' urine 1 g/l for 60 seconds. Asthmatic response was inhibited with sodium cromoglycate (DSCG) 40 mg given 10 minutes before test. the day. No non-immediate reaction developed (figure). A radioallergo-sorbent test performed with the same urine extract showed her blood to contain specific IgE antibody, 23-9 % of the counts added in the assay being bound, as compared with 0-73 , with cord blood and a mean of 0-69 %o with six blood-bank controls. Comment Asthma has resulted from inhaling certain proteins in the urine of mice, rats, guinea-pigs, and rabbits in sensitised subjects but not from inhaling the animal serum.' 2 Our patient's sensitivity to pigs' urine raises the possibility that urine of other mammals may also cause...

The prevalence of work-related wheeze and breathlessness was measured in factory employees manufacturing flux-cored solder. The flux contained colophony which was heated in the production process, exposing the workers to colophony fumes. Measurement of colophony in the breathing zone defined three grades of exposure with median levels of 1-92 mg/i3 (six subjects), 0-02 mg/m3 (14 subjects), and less than 0O01 mg/m3 (68 subjects). All but two workers in the first two groups, and 90 % of a random sample of the last group, were studied. Occupational asthma was present in 21 % of the higher two exposure groups and 40% of the lowest exposure group. Mean values of FEV1 and FVC fell with increasing exposure. The prevalence of upper and lower respiratory symptoms was only one-third to a half that found in a previous study of shop floor electronics workers, whose work raised the flux to a higher temperature and produced higher concentrations of colophony fume. Total IgM levels were higher in the solder manufacturers than in unexposed controls, and were higher still in the electronics workers. The solder manufacturers were exposed to colophony fumes at 140°C, below the temperature at which the resin acids decompose, supporting the hypothesis that it is the whole resin acids rather than decomposition products which cause occupational asthma. The threshold limit value should be based on the resin acid content of the fume, and not the aldehyde content as at present. The survey suggests that sensitisation will not be prevented unless exposure is kept well below the present threshold limit value.Colophony (rosin, pine resin), the principal constituent of non-corrosive soft soldering fluxes, has been shown to be the sensitising agent in a group of electronics workers with occupational asthma.'-3 A prevalence study of respiratory symptoms in a factory making consumer electronics by mass production techniques showed that 22% of the shop floor workforce had work-related wheeze or breathlessness or both. It was thought that the level and duration of exposure to fume were the most important factors leading to sensitisation.5 6 Resin acids are broken down on heating above 200°C to form a large number of compounds, some of which are aldehydes,7 so the composition of the fume depends on the temperature at which it is heated.8 Bronchial provocation studies have shown that reactions to colophony in sensitised workers are reduced by methylation of the resin acid carboxyl groups. The whole resin acids are likely to be the cause of the asthma as the thermal degradation products should be similar with methylated and unmodified resin acids. The factory processWe were asked to investigate workers in a factory making flux-cored solder containing American WW and Portuguese Y colophonies (in future called solder manufacturers) to investigate the effects of colophony fumes produced by heating at a temperature lower than the 350-450°C common in electronics factories. The factory was in two separated buildings. Four men were employed in a sm...

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Summary Measurements by radiometric assay of specific IgE, IgA, IgM, igD and IgG antibodies, in fifty‐six patients with asthma, fifty‐six with rhinitis and twenty with allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), showed differences in the patterns of antibody response between the three patient groups, both in terms of levels of class specific antibodies and the proportion of patients giving positive results. Specific IgE antibody values were similar in all three groups and positive results were found in three‐quarters of the patients in each group. No other class of antibody to Candida albicans gave values which were similar in all three patient groups. Specific IgG and IgA antibody values were highest in ABPA and lowest in rhinitis; specific IgM antibody values were highest in asthma and lowest in ABPA; specific IgD antibody values were higher in rhinitis than asthma and very low in ABPA. Specific IgG1 and lgG2 antibodies to C. albicans were higher in rhinitis than in asthma, whereas specific IgG3 and lgG4 values were significantly higher in asthma than in rhinitis. There was a greater number of positive results for IgG1, IgG2 and IgG4 in patients with ABPA than in the other two patient groups where values for IgG1 and IgG2 antibody to C.albicans were mainly negative. Positive IgG3 antibody results occurred with greatest frequency in patients with asthma, half of them giving values greater than the mean + 2 s.d. of the control value; positive specific IgG4 antibody values occurred more frequently in asthma than in rhinitis.