The epidemiology of multifood allergy in the United States: A population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated food allergies (FAs) are increasingly common among US children and adults. Not only can living with FA impose considerable physical health impacts, but it also imposes economic burden and can negatively affect quality of life. Limited data indicate that allergy to multiple foods (multi-FA) also may be common, but much remains unknown about its distribution and determinants. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the prevalence, characteristics, determinants, psychosocial burden, and distribution of multi-FA among a large, nationally representative sample of US children and adults. METHODS: A US population-based survey was administered. Estimates of multi-FA prevalence, conditional frequencies of multi-FA combinations, and associated factors were derived. Latent class analyses were conducted using 9 dichotomized indicators of specific FA prevalence, which were used to determine factors associated with latent class membership and characterize FA-related psychosocial burden within each class. RESULTS: Surveys were completed for 38,408 children and 40,443 adults. Among children and adults meeting established symptom-report criteria for FA, an estimated 40% and 48% had multi-FA, respectively. Among pediatric and adult populations with convincing FAs, the lifetime reported prevalence of physician-diagnosed atopic comorbidities increased significantly as the number of reported current convincing FAs increased, as did the proportion reporting multi-FA-related health care utilization and higher perceived psychosocial burden. Latent class analyses suggested the existence of the following 4 key latent phenotypes of multi-FA: milk and egg-dominant, seafood-dominant, peanut and tree nut-dominant, and broadly multi-food allergic. CONCLUSION: The US population-level burden of multi-FA is high among both children and adults, and data indicate the presence of 4 major phenotypes of multi-FA in both populations.

Recommendations on Complementary Food Introduction Among Pediatric Practitioners.

Importance: The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend waiting 3 to 5 days between the introduction of new complementary foods (solid foods introduced to infants <12 months of age), yet with advances in the understanding of infant food diversity, the guidance that pediatric practitioners are providing to parents is unclear. Objective: To characterize pediatric practitioner recommendations regarding complementary food introduction and waiting periods between introducing new foods. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this survey study, a 23-item electronic survey on complementary food introduction among infants was administered to pediatric health care professionals from February 1 to April 30, 2019. Responses were described among the total sample and compared among subgroups. Survey invitations were emailed to 2215 members of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the national American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Early Childhood. Participants were required to be primary medical practitioners, such as physicians, resident physicians, or nurse practitioners, providing pediatric care to infants 12 months or younger. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome measures were recommendations on age of complementary food introduction and waiting periods between the introduction of new foods. Categorical survey items were reported as numbers (percentages) and 95% CIs. Means (SDs) were used to describe continuous survey items. Results: The survey was sent to 2215 practitioners and completed by 604 (response rate, 27.3%). Of these respondents, 41 were excluded because they did not provide care for infants or pediatric patients. The final analyses included responses from 563 surveys. Of these, 454 pediatricians (80.6%), 85 resident physicians (15.1%), and 20 nurse practitioners (3.6%) completed the survey. Only 217 practitioners (38.6%; 95% CI, 34.1%-44.6%) recommended waiting 3 days or longer between food introduction; 259 practitioners (66.3%; 95% CI, 61.4%-70.8%) recommended waiting that amount of time for infants at risk for food allergy development (P = .02). A total of 264 practitioners (46.9%; 95% CI, 42.8%-51.0%) recommended infant cereal as the first food, and 226 practitioners (40.1%; 95% CI, 36.1%-44.2%) did not recommend a specific order. A total of 268 practitioners (47.6%; 95% CI, 43.5%-51.7%) recommended food introduction at 6 months for exclusively breastfed (EBF) infants, and 193 (34.3%; 95% CI, 30.5%-38.3%) recommended food introduction at 6 months for non-EBF infants (P < .001); 179 practitioners (31.8%; 95% CI, 28.1%-35.8%) recommended food introduction at 4 months for EBF infants, and 239 practitioners (42.5%; 95% CI, 38.4%-46.6%) recommended food introduction at 4 months for non-EBF infants (P < .001). A need for additional training on complementary food introduction was reported by 310 practitioners (55.1%; 95% CI, 50.9%-59.1%). Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study, most pediatric practitioners did not counsel families to wait 3 days or longer between introducing foods unless infants were at risk for food allergy development. The findings suggest that the current recommendation limits infant food diversity and may delay early peanut introduction. Because the approach to food allergy prevention has changed, a reevaluation of published feeding guidelines may be necessary.

Role of natural killer cells in lung cancer.

PURPOSE: One of the key immune cells involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer is natural killer (NK) cells and these cells are novel targets for therapeutic applications in lung cancer. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature on lung cancer pathogenesis with a focus on the interaction between NK cells and smoking, how these factors are related to the pathogenesis of lung cancer and how NK cell-based immunotherapy effect lung cancer survival. METHODS: The relevant literature from PubMed and Medline databases is reviewed in this article. RESULTS: The cytolytic potential of NK cells are reduced in lung cancer and increasing evidence suggests that improving NK cell functioning may induce tumor regression. Recent clinical trials on NK cell-based novel therapies such as cytokines including interleukin (IL)-15, IL-12 and IL-2, NK-92 cell lines and allogenic NK cell immunotherapy showed promising results with less adverse effects on the lung cancer survival. CONCLUSIONS: The NK cell targeting strategy has not yet been approved for lung cancer treatment. More clinical studies focusing on the role of NK cells in lung cancer pathogenesis are warranted to develop novel NK cell-based therapeutic approaches for the treatment of lung cancer.

Thyroid hormone levels in late preterm, early term and term infants: a study with healthy neonates revealing reference values and factors affecting thyroid hormones.

BACKGROUND: Thyroid function tests in neonates have been challenging to interpret because their levels are affected by several neonatal and delivery-related factors. The aim of the study was to evaluate reference values of thyroxine (T4) and thyrotropin (TSH) levels in different gestational age groups and to demonstrate the affect of perinatal factors on thyroid hormones. METHODS: Medical records of 7616 neonates whose gestational age ranges between 34 and 42 weeks were analyzed retrospectively. Gender, mode of delivery, gestational age, postnatal age and birth weight were noted together with TSH and T4 levels. RESULTS: Gestational age (r=0.14, p<0.001) and birth weight (r=0.12, p<0.001) had positive correlation with T4 levels, whereas they had no effect on TSH levels. Males had higher TSH and lower T4 levels (p=0.001 for both) compared with females. T4 levels of babies born via vaginal delivery were lower than the ones born via cesarean section (p=0.01). Multivariable analysis yielded gestational age as the only factor affecting T4 levels (p<0.001). T4 and TSH levels based on 2.5-97.5 percentile cutoffs according to gestational age were presented. CONCLUSIONS: The thyroid hormone ranges given in this study can help pediatricians to interpret the thyroid hormone results with ease.

The clinical impact of ST131 H30-Rx subclone in urinary tract infections due to multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli.

In this study, risk factors for ST131 H30 and H30-Rx subclones among urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli were described. Urine samples were collected from consecutive outpatients registered to the outpatient clinics of Baskent University Hospital (Ankara, Turkey) with complaints of acute cystitis in 2011. A total of 107 MDR E. coli isolates were included in the study. Of the 107 isolates studied, 26 (24.3%) were typed as ST131 clone. Extended-spectrum ß-lactamase (ESBL)-producers accounted for 59 (55.1%) of the 107 isolates. Among the 59 ESBL-positive isolates, 18 (31%) were found to belong to the ST131 clone. Of the 18 ESBL-positive ST131 isolates, 17 (94%) were defined as H30 subclone, among which 16 (94%) represented the H30-Rx subclone. Among the 48 ESBL-negative isolates, 8 (17%) ST131 isolates were detected, 7 (88%) of which belonged to H30 subclone; 5 (71%) of the H30 subclone isolates were classified under H30-Rx subclone. In multivariate analysis, hospitalisation within last year was the only host risk factor associated with MDR E. coli ST131 H30-Rx subclone UTI (OR=3.5, 95% CI 1.04-12.17; P=0.042). CTX-M-15 production was found to be highly associated with the presence of ST131 H30-Rx subclone (OR=4.8, 95% CI 1.54-15.32; P=0.007). In conclusion, urinary MDR E. coli ST131 H30-Rx subclone was found to be important in the dissemination of MDR UTIs in the community. Approximately 20% of the MDR isolates were H30-Rx subclone. Infection with this subclone was found to be healthcare-associated.