Caseof a Periodical Affection of theEyes and Chest

Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) 2008*

“…In the second century, Claudius Galenus, one of the fathers of modern respiratory physiology, defined the nose as a Ôrespiratory instrumentÕ in his work De usu partium [on the usefulness of the (body) parts (17)]. The co-morbidities between the upper and lower airways were described with the clinical description of allergic rhinitis (3,8). The nasal and bronchial mucosa present similarities, and one of the most important concepts regarding nose-lung interactions is the functional complementarity (14).…”

“…Duration of the disease. The EP 3 OS document proposes to define the disease as acute rhinosinusitis (symptoms lasting for <12 weeks and complete resolution of symptoms) or CRS (symptoms lasting for more than 12 weeks without complete resolution of symptoms).…”

“…Very rare descriptions can be traced back to Islamic texts of the 9th century and European texts of the 16th century. It was only in the early 19th century that the disease was carefully described, and at that time it was regarded as most unusual (3). In the 19th century, the disease followed the industrialization of westernized countries (4).…”

Asthma and allergic diseases: is there a downside to cleanliness and can we exploit it?

“…This pattern of disease development is typified by the development of hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis. In 1819, John Bostock gave the first detailed description of the signs and symptoms of hay fever, describing his own disease, in a paper read to the medical society in London (Bostock, 1819). Nine years later, in 1828, he read a second paper to the same society, in which he documented the disease in a further 18 cases that had been brought to his attention (Bostock, 1828).…”

Specific IgE Testing (RAST)

“…The first documented clinical history of an allergy was reported by Dr. John Bostock which recorded his own case history as first complete description of catarrus aestivus or hay fever in 1819 [1], followed by the description of pollen grains as causative agents for allergic reactions by Charles Blackley in 1873 [2]. The term "allergy" is derived from the Greek words allos (other) and ergon (reaction) and was proposed by the Viennese paediatrician Clemens von Pirquet in 1906.…”