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Biomedical subjects

Denis Charpin

Publications and source records attributed to Denis Charpin.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

In utero and childhood exposure to parental tobacco smoke, and allergies in schoolchildren.

Among early-life environmental factors, parental smoking (ETS) has been associated with adverse respiratory outcomes in children. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether parental smoking might lead to asthma and allergies taking into account family history of asthma, personal atopy, breast feeding as confounders and owing pets and day-care during the first 6 months of life as modifiers. About 9000 children of fourth and fifth grade were selected in six cities of France. About 7798 answered an epidemiological questionnaire, underwent a medical examination including skin prick test positivity to common allergens, skin examination for eczema, and run test to assess exercise-induced asthma (EIA). Prevalence of allergies was, respectively, 25.2% for eczema, 12.9% for rhinitis, 9.9% for asthma and 25% for atopy. About 8.3% had an EIA. About 21.6% of children were exposed to maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy. Maternal smoking, in utero and later, was significantly related to lifetime wheezing (odds ratio (OR): 1.24[1.10-1.56]) and asthma (OR: 1.22[1.04-1.66]). There was no association between atopy, rhinitis, eczema and parental smoking, respectively. ETS remains a risk factor of wheezing in childhood. Counselling parents of children to quit smoking still remains a public health policy.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

[Wall relative humidity: a simple and reliable index for predicting Stachybotrys chartarum infestation in dwellings].

As the indoor mold Stachybotrys chartarum (SC) has been linked to serious health disorders, its identification in water-damaged dwellings is of utmost importance. The aim of this work was to compare wall relative humidity (RH) measurements with the results of mold identification studied on 458 samples collected from 100 dwellings. Mold identification was based on direct microscopic examination of wall samples collected by the gummed paper technique. Mean (+/- SD) wall RH (%) was much higher (97.0 +/- 6.1) when SC was identified (30 samples) than when other molds were identified (291 samples, 41.8 +/- 36.9) and when no molds were identified (137 samples, 38.9 +/- 34.8). There was a direct relationship between wall and room-air RH but the scatter of results implies that the latter cannot be used as a surrogate for the former. This study suggests that simple wall RH measurement can serve as a reliable indicator of SC infestation of dwellings.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed2004

Clustering patterns of LOD scores for asthma-related phenotypes revealed by a genome-wide screen in 295 French EGEA families.

A genome-wide scan for asthma phenotypes was conducted in the whole sample of 295 EGEA families selected through at least one asthmatic subject. In addition to asthma, seven phenotypes involved in the main asthma physiopathological pathways were considered: SPT (positive skin prick test response to at least one of 11 allergens), SPTQ score being the number of positive skin test responses to 11 allergens, Phadiatop (positive specific IgE response to a mixture of allergens), total IgE levels, eosinophils, bronchial responsiveness (BR) to methacholine challenge and %predicted FEV(1). Four regions showed evidence for linkage (P</=0.001): 6q14 for %FEV(1), 12p13 for IgE, 17q22-q24 for SPT and 21q21 for both SPTQ and %FEV(1). Nine other regions indicated smaller linkage signals (0.001<P</=0.005). While most of these regions have been reported by previous asthma and lung function screens, 6q14 appears to be a new region potentially linked to %FEV(1). To determine which of these various asthma phenotypes are more likely to share common genetic determinants, a principal component analysis was applied to the genome-wide LOD scores. This analysis revealed clustering of LODs for asthma, SPT and Phadiatop on one axis and clustering of LODs for %FEV(1), BR and SPTQ on the other, while LODs for IgE and eosinophils appeared to be independent from all other LODs. These results provide new insights into the potential sharing of genetic determinants by asthma-related phenotypes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Methodologic aspects of the quantification of skin prick test responses: the EGEA study.

BACKGROUND: The expression of responses of allergy skin prick tests is not standardized. Usual definitions of atopy are not quantitative. OBJECTIVE: We sought to perform a biometric analysis of responses to various allergens to propose synthetic, quantitative indices independent of the heterogeneity of responses to various allergens. METHODS: Adults (N = 1286) from the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma, Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness, and Atopy (EGEA) were included in the analysis. The first step, conducted for 678 subjects with at least 1 wheal >0, was to perform a standardization of wheal diameters to obtain comparable figures for 10 allergens through use of the means of the squares of wheal size as a scaling factor. The second step was a factor analysis of the standardized responses conducted not only for all subjects but also separately for asthmatic case and nonasthmatic control subjects. Finally, the strength of the link between various dichotomous and quantitative scores was assessed with multiRAST, total IgE, and asthma. Analyzed quantitative scores were based on the number of positive responses and on the nonstandardized and standardized sizes of the wheals. RESULTS: The standardization was efficient. Among asthmatic subjects but not other subjects, factor analysis evidenced a pattern with 3 factors, corresponding to outdoor, indoor, and mold allergens. The link study showed that all scores performed very similarly. CONCLUSION: The number of positive tests is a quantitative score with valid biometric properties. It should be used more widely in clinical settings and in epidemiology to assess the severity of atopy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Right-to-left atrial shunt without pulmonary artery hypertension.

A 70-year-old woman without any history of pulmonary or cardiac disease developed breathlessness with severe arterial hypoxemia. Cardiac ultrasound examination and spirometry were normal. Cardiac catheterization and intravenous microbubble injection demonstrated an interatrial right-to-left shunt. The defect was closed surgically, and the patient recovered immediately. On surgery, the aorta was elongated, inducing an angulation of the interatrial septum and leading to the atrial septal defect just above the inferior vena cava.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mycotoxin identification in moldy dwellings.

The objective of this study was to assess the level of macrocyclic trichothecenes (MCT), one of the most potent mycotoxins, on wall surfaces, floor dust and air samples from moldy dwellings. The study was based on an index group comprising 15 flooded dwellings contaminated by Stachybotrys chartarum or Chaetomium and a control group comprising nine dwellings without molds on visual inspection and mold sampling. Three samples were collected from each dwelling: a sample from the moldy wall, using a swab, a floor dust sample on a 0.5 m(2) surface with a cloth and an air sample using a pump comprising a 1 microm Teflon filter. The MCT level was measured using a monoclonal, antibody-based ELISA test. Compared with measurements performed in index dwellings, higher MCT values were measured on floor dust samples from moldy dwellings (P = 0.02). Samples from wall surfaces demonstrated nearly significant differences (P = 0.06). No significant differences were observed for air samples (P = 0.15), but some samples showed increased MCT levels. Significant correlations were observed between the levels measured on wall surfaces, floor dust and air samples (P = 0.02 to 0.05). In contrast, no correlation was observed between moldy surface and MCT levels. In conclusion, this paper reports for the first time direct evidence for the presence of MCT in moldy dwellings.

Air Microbiology↗