Pollen counts in relation to the prevalence of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, asthma and atopic eczema in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC).

BACKGROUND: Although pollens are major allergens associated with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma, there is little information about the relative prevalence of these conditions in populations with different pollen exposures. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pollen exposure and allergic symptoms among children in different countries. METHODS: An ecological analysis was conducted to see whether pollen exposure (pollen counts, and duration and severity of pollen seasons) is associated with symptoms of allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, asthma and atopic eczema in 28 centres within 11 countries (nine being in Europe). Data on the prevalence of symptoms in 13-14-year olds were based on the responses to the written questionnaires from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). The analysis was adjusted for gross national product and mean annual relative humidity. RESULTS: There was little relationship between pollen exposure and symptom prevalence, except for a significant inverse association between grass pollen counts and lifetime prevalence of the symptoms of allergic rhinitis (P=0.03). Almost all the regression coefficients were negative. The associations were even weaker and all non-significant when the analyses were conducted within countries, using a random intercept fixed slope model, but there was still no evidence of a positive association between pollen exposure and symptoms. CONCLUSION: There is a weak but consistent tendency for the prevalence of allergic symptoms to be inversely associated with pollen exposure. This finding accords with evidence from several countries, suggesting that the prevalence of hayfever and asthma tends to be lower in rural than in urban areas, and lowest among people living on farms. Exposure to allergenic pollen in early life does not appear to increase the risk of acquiring symptoms of respiratory allergy, and may even give some protection against them.

[Pulsecytophotometric analysis of cervical cells of postmenopausal women (author's transl)]. / Impulscytophotometrische Analyse der Zervixzellen von Frauen aus der Postmenopause

49 suspensions with cells of the cervix uteri exclusively taken from postmenopausal women were analysed with the pulsecytophotometer. 7 of these cases had an histologically verified invasive cancer of the cervix uteri. There were no false negative results, the percentage of false positive measurements was about 30%. This good result may arise from selecting the cell material analized exclusively from postmenopausal patients and the choice of mathematical model for histogram interpretation, which has been constructed analogously to the cycle of mitosis of cells. Comparing the different methods of preparation of the suspensions the standard procedure (RNase, pepsin, ultrasonic) before staining with ethidium bromide seems to be the best one.