Treatment of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis: a review of the role of topical levocabastine

Lcocabastine is an extremely potent and highly selective H1-receptor antagonist which has been specifically developed as eye drops and nasal spray for the treatment of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Clinical experience to date suggests that this topical antihistamine is at least as effective as other current first-line therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this condition, including oral H1-receptor antagonists and sodium cromoglycate. Onset of action is rapid, with clinical effects apparent within minutes of instillation. Moreover, duration of action is sufficiently long to permit a convenient twice-daily dosing regimen. Topical levocabastine is well tolerated with an adverse-effect profile comparable with that of placebo and sodium cromoglycate. As might be expected from the route of drug administration, application site reactions are the most frequent adverse effect associated with levocabastine eye drops and nasal spray with an incidence comparable with that seen in placebotreated controls. The availability of effective and well-tolerated topical antihistamines, such as levocabastine, is an important advance which broadens the range of therapeutic approaches available for the clinical management of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Levocabastine appears to be an attractive alternative to oral antihistamines as a first-line therapeutic option for the treatment of this atopic condition

Schuivende panelen

Schuivende panelen was de titel van een partijprogramma uit de jaren tachtig. Deze rede is echter geen politiek manifest. Hoewel een wetenschapper in staat moet zijn om politiek te bedrijven en de Allergologie als discipline sinds haar oprichting speelbal geweest is van politieke krachten gaat deze lezing vooral over verschuivingen en ontwikkelingen in het vakgebied. rede In verkorte vorm uitgesproken ter gelegenheid van het aanvaarden van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar met als leeropdracht Allergologie aan het Erasmus MC, faculteit van de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, op 20 april 200

Positive and negative AIT trials: What makes the difference?

Background: Allergen immunotherapy has proven to be efficacious in allergic rhinitis and asthma. However, results from randomised clinical trials may vary substantially. Clinical trials may unexpectedly fail. The purpose of this review is to discuss the possible factors that may contribute to a successful or unsuccessful study. Methods: Descriptive review exploring the possible causes of negative outcomes in allergen immunotherapy trials. Results: A series of factors may lead to negative results. Among of these are underpowering of the study, low allergen content in tested extracts, insufficient allergen exposure during monitoring and recruitment of inappropriate patients. In addition, the choice of the primary endpoint may be critical. Discussion: A clinical trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of an agent. However, studies with potential effective compounds may fail because of methodical issues. Sometimes, they are the cause of discrepancies between successful phase II and unsuccessful phase III trials. To understand more about failure of studies, investigators and editors should be encouraged to publish negative trials

Steering smog prediction

The use of computational steering for smog prediction is described. This application is representative for many underlying issues found in steering high performance applications: high computing times, large data sets, and many different input parameters. After a short description of the smog prediction model, its visualization and steering are described. The amount of computation needed to solve the governing transport equations is alarmingly high. The user has a large number of options for the display of various aspects of the simulation, and also for the interactive control of its input data. Smooth animation is very important to monitor the evolution of pollutants and for a responsive feedback to parameter changes. Here a performance of least 15 frames per second is required. We discuss techniques that allow the user to steer the numerical solver, such that an optimal tradeoff between computation speed and accuracy can be made

CSE: a modular architecture for computational steering

Computational steering is the ultimate goal of interactive simulation. Steering enables users to supervise and dynamically control the computation of an ongoing simulation. We describe CSE: a modular architecture for a computational steering environment. The kernel of the architecture is designed to be very simple, flexible and minimalistic. All higher level system functionality is pushed into modular components outside of the kernel, resulting in a rich and powerful environment. For these modular components (called satellites) a uniform user interface metaphor for users, based on a tray of cards, has been used. The card tray metaphor is very simple to understand and provides users with a simple mechanism to organize and retrieve the tools. Several applications of the environment are shown

Scattering amplitude of a single fracture under uniaxial stress

Remotely sensing the properties of fractures has applications ranging from exploration geophysics to hazard monitoring. Newly developed capabilities to measure the in-plane component of dense laser-based ultrasound wave fields allow us to test the applicability of a linear slip model to describe fracture properties. In particular, we estimate the diameter, and the normal and tangential compliance of a fracture from the measured scattering amplitudes of P and S waves in the laboratory. Finally, we show that the normal compliance decreases linearly with increasing uniaxial static stress in the plane of the fracture, but that our measurements of the SV scattered field do not show significant changes in the tangential complianc

Comparison of nasal responsiveness to histamine, methacholine and phentolamine in allergic rhinitis patients and controls

In a selected group of rhinitis patients with an IgE‐mediated allergy to house dust mites the nasal response to insufflation of histamine chloride, methacholine and phentolamine was demonstrated to be higher than in a control group. With the methods used histamine chloride was better at discriminating between healthy subjects and patients than methacholine or phentolamine. This discrimination was shown by assessing the severity of reflex‐mediated symptoms such as the number of sneezes and the amount of secretion, and not by differences in nasal airway resistance. Copyrigh

Making Retail Supply Chains Sustainable: Upgrading Opportunities for Developing Country Suppliers under Voluntary Quality Standards

This paper examines the sustainability claims of private quality standards, voluntary adopted by supermarket to improve the quality of products in respect of food safety, and environmental and social sustainability. The concept of ‘sustainability’ is defined as the opportunity for upgrading by developing country suppliers in the retail supply chains. The paper reports of an explorative analysis on the perceived effects of 36 quality standards in the retail on upgrading. Data was collected through a survey of a wide variety of relevant media: websites, scientific articles and reports, policy reports, and online newspaper articles. The overall conclusion is that the majority of the 36 standards are perceived to facilitate trading opportunities for developing country producers, but only for those suppliers who can meet the criteria of quality standards. The study found interesting differences between various categories of standards. Standards initiated by NGOs and partnerships are perceived to offer better upgrading opportunities to suppliers than do standards initiated by (inter-) governmental authorities, by individual firms, or by business associations. Standards with an explicit social and social/environmental focus have a more positive influence on process and product upgrading in developing countries compared to voluntary food safety standards. Product-specific standards offer better upgrading opportunities than do generic quality standards