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Objective: There is limited available literature on the incidence of allergic diseases in ED. The objective of this study was to investigate the clinical records of patients admitted to the ED with a suspected allergic reaction. Methods: A 1 year retrospective study was carried out and data were collected from the patients’ computerized medical reports. Results: A total of 324 patients were admitted for an allergic event. Of those, 165 patients (50.9%) were female and their mean age was 55 ± 18.5 years. Diagnoses included: asthma in 100 patients (30.9%); hymenoptera allergy in 78 patients (24.1%); food allergy in 31 patients (9.5%); drug allergy in 25 patients (7.7%); and allergic conjunctivitis in 12 patients (3.7%). No diagnosis was found in the medical records of 78 patients (24.1%). Anaphylactic shock was observed in 12 patients (3.7%) with a diagnosis of food allergy (six cases), drug allergy (three cases) and hymenoptera allergy (three cases). Ninety patients (27.7%) were hospitalized in the following units: 38 in allergy unit (42.2%); 20 in intensive care unit (22.2%); 10 in pulmonary unit (11.1%); eight in the dermatology unit (8.9%); six in the internal medicine unit (6.7%); and eight in other units (8.9%). Overall, 42 patients (12.9%) were evaluated by an allergologist after ED discharge with positive allergy results in 28 cases (66.6%). Conclusions: Acute allergic diseases are not rare in ED, representing 1% of the annual visits in our series. A low rate of allergologist referral was observed. Emergency physicians must work closely with allergologists to ensure a better evaluation, long‐term care and preventive management of patients with allergic diseases admitted to the ED.

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the impact of damming on the spawning migrations of Barbus barbus in the canalized River Meuse (Southem Belgium). A Denil fish pass on the Ampsin-Neuville dam was controlled 251 times in 1989-1993. The most stnking feature is the almost complete absence of barbel in 1990-1993 (15 fishes in 4 years). Most captures of barbel in the fish pass in 1989 were clumped within a few days (mid-May) and related with spawning migrations. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that attractivity was the major condition set allowing barbel to migrate successfully through the pass, while feasibility parameters (water velocity) were found not to be relevant. The variables involved in the attractivity condition set refer indirectly to the influence of water catchment by a hydroelectric plant and to the relative importance of the flow in the pass. The study concludes that this additional condition set significantly interferes with the natural environmental stimuli triggering spawning migrations in barbel and questions the effectiveness of the thermally-related reproductive strategy of the species in an environment with restricted longitudinal connectivity. This statement is discussed in parallel with the recent evolution of barbel populations in canalized rivers.

Anaphylactic shock accidents after allergen exposure are frequent. After immunization with ovalbumin (OVA), a common dietary constituent, we evaluated the efficacy of pretreatment with histamine-receptor or serotonin-receptor blockers administered alone or in combination with a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor (L-NAME) on OVA-induced anaphylactic shock in Brown Norway rats. Animals were allocated to the following groups (n = 6 each): control (0.9% saline); diphenydramine (15 mg kg(-1)); cimetidine (20 mg kg(-1)); diphenydramine + cimetidine; dihydroergotamine (50 microg kg(-1)); diphenydramine + cimetidine + dihydroergotamine; L-NAME (100 mg/kg) alone or associated with diphenydramine, cimetidine, diphenydramine + cimetidine, dihydroergotamine, or diphenydramine + cimetidine + dihydroergotamine. Mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), heart rate (HR), and survival time were monitored for 60 min following treatment. The shock was initiated with i.v. OVA. The MABP drop after i.v. OVA was worsened by diphenydramine and was modestly attenuated by cimetidine, dihydroergotamine, or both together. L-NAME potentiated slightly the effects of cimetidine and dihydroergotamine by lessening the initial MABP decrease, but this transient effect was not sufficient to prevent the final collapse or to improve survival time. Decreased vasodilatory (prostaglandins E2), increased vasoconstrictory (thromboxane B2) prostaglandins, and unchanged leukotriene C4 concentrations were contributory to the overall hemodynamic changes. Thus, the combined blockade of vasodilator mediators (histamine, serotonin, and nitric oxide) slowed the MABP drop in anaphylactic shock, but did not improve survival. More studies are needed to understand these discordant effects.

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