Atopy and bronchial reactivity in Australian and Melanesian populations

Abstract

In order to compare the prevalence of atopy and bronchial hyperreactivity among Papua New Guinian (P.N.G.) and Australian populations, skin prick tests and methacholine bronchial challenge tests were performed. A civilian and an army population from each country were examined and those with past or present asthma, recent respiratory tract infection and chronic lung disease were excluded. No statistical difference in the prevalence of atopy was found between the four populations. In the P.N.G. population 40 and 49%, and in the Australian population 27 and 39%, were found to be atopic, without symptoms of past or present allergic disease. The house dust mites were the commonest allergens in all populations. In response to methacholine (0-3 mg), only 6% of subjects had falls in 1 sec forced expiratory volume (FEVi) of more than 12% (upper limit of normal range) and only two were in the asthmatic range. There was no correlation between the degree of bronchial hyperreactivity and atopic status; however, the degree of bronchial hyperreactivity was slightly greater in the New Guinea civilian than in the Australian civilian population. In the absence of asthma, atopic status does not appear to cause increased bronchial reactivity, suggesting that some factor other than atopy must be present for the development of bronchial hyperreactivity characteristic of asthma.

Serum house dust mite antibodies: predictor of increased bronchial responsiveness in adults of a community

“…In a study of 23-45 year old Australian adults, no relationship was observed between number of positive skin tests and bronchial responsiveness [10], when using a single dose of methacholine. Another negative study was reported from the USA [11], including 171 randomly selected adults.…”

“…Eur Respir J., 1996, 9, 919-925 Allergen challenge has been shown to influence the degree of bronchial responsiveness to nonsensitizing stimuli [1]. A number of studies in children [2][3][4] as well as in adults with allergy skin test reactivity [5][6][7][8][9] have documented increased bronchial responsiveness, although not all studies have shown this relationship [10,11]. Furthermore, in children, increased bronchial responsiveness has been associated with specific allergy against indoor allergens (house dust mite, cat, dog and mould) rather than against outdoor allergens (tree and grass pollen) [12][13][14][15][16].…”

Outcome of wheeze in childhood: the influence of atopy

“…WOOLCOCK et al [18] found no correlation between methacholine reactivity and skin test response in a nonasthmatic population, and ANNESI et al [19] also failed to demonstrate an association between IgE level and bronchial reactivity in Parisian policemen. BRYANT and BURNS [20] stated that there was not a significant association between degree of bronchial histamine reactivity and either total serum IgE level or skin test reactivity.…”

Occupational asthma in a mineral analysis laboratory.

“…16 Ozone is also an irritant that is known to cause reversible airway narrowing in concentrations of 04-0 5 ppm,'4 although adaptation to these effects has been recorded. 5 In appropriate (lower) concentrations both SO2 and ozone may cause bronchial hyperreactivity without interval airflow obstruction." 18 The levels of exposure to acid fumes experienced by the workers in this study were not documented.…”

“…They are crushed finely in a shed that houses crushing machinery and then transferred to a laboratory building where they are weighed in a weighing room and transferred to another room where quantitative analysis is undertaken. The minerals are dissolved in concentrated solutions of hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, nitric, perchloric, and sulphuric acids including "aqua regia", after which they are "digested" by heating them in open beakers in fume cupboards for [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] hours. The resulting solutions are then submitted for atomic absorption (AA) and inductive coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry in separate adjacent rooms in the laboratory building.…”