This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jordan N. Fink, MD; Richard deShazo, MD

JAMA. 1987;258(20):2938-2944.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

ASTHMA that is mediated by IgE— mast-cell mechanisms is the most common immunologic disease. However, other inflammatory lung diseases are increasingly being recognized as having an immune basis and their pathogenetic mechanisms are beginning to be understood. The granulomatous and interstitial lung diseases are an important part of this group.

HYPERSENSITIVITY PNEUMONITIS

Hypersensitivity pneumonitis, or extrinsic allergic alveolitis, is an immunologic inflammatory reaction involving the lung interstitium, terminal bronchioles, and alveoli and is due to hypersensitivity to antigenic organic dusts often encountered in occupations or hobbies.¹ Some of the more common antigens causing this reaction are listed in Table 13-1.

Prevalence and Etiology

The prevalence of the disease is unknown. Farmer's lung, pigeon breeder's disease, and ventilation pneumonitis are most frequently encountered in the United States. About 8% of dairy farmers have serum precipitins to thermophilic organisms and about 4% have farmer's lung. About 6% to 15% of persons . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?