RIDOLO , Erminia

Purpose of review Meta-analysis provides the highest level of evidence-based efficacy of a medical treatment or intervention. Allergen immunotherapy in its two forms of subcutaneous immunotherapy and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is an effective treatment of respiratory allergy as shown by meta-analyses, but in recent years there has been an...

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Severe asthma is a major health concern. The allergic (IgE-mediated) form of asthma is well known from a pathogenic viewpoint. We searched the available literature to identify which allergens are most frequently associated with severe, refractory or life threatening asthma. According to the results, molds, pet dander, cockroach and ragweed were...

Objective As confirmed by systematic reviews and meta-analyses, allergen immunotherapy is clinically effective in the treatment of allergic diseases. In particular, subcutaneous immunotherapy is a pivotal treatment in patients with severe reactions to Hymenoptera venom, whereas subcutaneous immunotherapy and sublingual immunotherapy are...

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a very common disease, caused by environmental aeroallergen, and clinically expressed by sneezing, nasal itching, rhinorrhea and obstruction. It is often considered a mild illness, but actually it has a significant individual and social burden. The management of AR is based on allergen avoidance, pharmacological...

Asthma, allergic rhinitis (AR) and atopic dermatitis are very common in young people, but in the latest decades it was increasingly recognized that also individuals of higher ages, including the population over 65 years, are concerned. Actually, it is now acknowledged the aging does not considerably alter the immune response to allergens....

Background: Allergic Rhinitis (AR) is a high-prevalence disease. In Europe about 25% of the general population is affected, and in Italy the prevalence is estimated to be 19.8%. The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) international document underlined that the prevalence of severe or refractory or overlapping rhinitis is...

Background Data about allergic rhinitis in elderly patients with asthma are lacking. Objective To investigate the presence of rhinitis and the role of sensitization of airborne allergens in elderly patients with asthma. Methods This was a multicenter cross-sectional study involving subjects at least 65 years old with asthma. Demographic...

Life expectancy and the number of elderly people are progressively increasing around the world. Together with other pathologies, allergic diseases also show an increasing incidence in geriatric age. This is partly due to the growing emphasis on a more accurate and careful diagnosis of the molecular mechanisms that do not allow to ignore the...

Background: Identifying allergic rhinitis requires allergy testing, but the first-line referral for rhinitis are usually primary care physicians (PCP), who are not familiar with such tests. The availability of easy and simple tests to be used by PCP to suggest allergy should be very useful. Methods: The Respiratory Allergy Prediction (RAP)...

The prevalence of asthma in the most advanced ages is similar to that of younger ages. However, the concept that older individuals may suffer from allergic asthma has been largely denied in the past, and a common belief attributes to asthma the definition of "rare" disease. Indeed, asthma in the elderly is often underdiagnosed or diagnosed as...

Background There is a need for validated tools to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in routine clinical practice. Objective The aim of this study was to validate the Chronic Urticaria Patient Perspective (CUPP) for assessment of patients with chronic urticaria (CU) in clinical practice. Methods A provisional CUPP was developed from...

Background: Severe Asthma Network in Italy (SANI) is a registry of patients recruited by accredited centers on severe asthma. Objective: To analyze epidemiological, clinical, inflammatory, functional, and treatment characteristics of severe asthmatics from the SANI registry. Methods: All consecutive patients with severe asthma were included...

Studies in the 1970s and 1980s reported that bacterial lysates (BL) had a prophylactic effect on recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTI). However, controlled clinical study procedures have evolved substantially since then. We performed a trial using updated methods to evaluate the efficacy of Lantigen B®, a chemical BL. This double blind,...

Background: The query "are there animals at home?" is usually administered for collecting information on anamnesis. This modality to consider exposure to pet allergens constitutes a potential bias in epidemiological studies and in clinical practice. The aim of our study was to evaluate/quantify different modalities of exposure to cat/dog in...