Twenty patients with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma sensitised to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus were studied. On two consecutive days they underwent methacholine challenge and allergen bronchial challenge. 72 h after allergen challenge, fibreoptic bronchoscopy with bronchial (BL) and bronchoalveolar (BAL) lavage was performed. Specific IgE antibodies were measured both in serum and in BL from 14 patients. Both BAL and BL cell differentials were similar in patients with isolated early response to allergen and in patients with dual response. Patients with dual response to allergen showed higher levels of antigen specific IgE antibodies in BL than patients with isolated early response, while IgE levels in serum were similar in the two groups.

No abstract

inhibits late asthmatic reactions and airway infli!Jllmation induced by toluene diisocyanate in seruitiz.ed subjects.

Immunoglobulin (Ig) levels increase in the lower respiratory tract of patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis. We evaluated the effects of prednisone therapy upon Ig concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid of ten patients with active disease (greater than 30% T-lymphocytes in BAL and positive 67Gallium (67Ga) lung scan). Therapy significantly lowered T-lymphocyte percentages in BAL and 67Ga lung scan indices and was followed by a slight improvement of the studied functional parameters. Biochemical analysis of BAL showed a significant decrease of both IgG/albumin (baseline 1.24 +/- 0.21; after therapy 0.40 +/- 0.12) and IgA/albumin (baseline 0.55 +/- 0.07; after therapy 0.14 +/- 0.03) ratios in all patients. Conversely, comparisons of IgM/albumin ratios did not show any change over the study period (baseline 0.05 +/- 0.01; after therapy 0.06 +/- 0.03). Thus oral steroid treatment suppresses the alveolitis of pulmonary sarcoidosis, as shown not only by the reduction of lung T-cells and 67Ga lung uptake, but also by the decreased Ig levels in the alveolar spaces.