[Occupational activities and allergic respiratory manifestations]. / Activité professionnelle et manifestations respiratoires allergiques.

The authors review aspects of occupational asthma that are important for the practitioner. Insurance problems are dealt with in the light of local regulations. Detailed chapters are devoted to baker's asthma (various aeroallergens), to plastic workers and painters (isocyanates) and to respiratory diseases among farmers. Finally, a list of other occupations in which asthma typically occurs is given. The responsibility of practitioners in charge of young patients about to choose their future profession is underlined.

Multidisc RAST: a reliable method for screening of specific IgE antibodies in serum?

"Multidiscs" (md) are cellulose discs to which several allergens are coupled, allowing the simultaneous screening of several specific IgE antibodies. We compared RAST performed with md to RAST performed with the corresponding individual allergens coated on single discs (sd). One hundred and twenty-two RAST positive samples were analyzed for four different allergen groups: moulds, cereals, weed pollens and tree pollens. We found lower RAST sensitivity when screening with mds than with the individual sds in all allergen groups except cereals. In 30 to 70% of the samples, the results were concordant. In 25.5 to 66.7%, md values were lower and in 1.3 to 26.3% higher than sd values. When only qualitative results were considered, the loss of sensitivity appeared acceptable: only 6.7 to 16.7% of the sd positive samples were not detected by md screening. A cost-benefit analysis, calculated on local data, confirmed economic advantages.