The medical research team presented a poster at the European Respiratory Society's Annual meeting in Stockholm, Sweden from September 14th to 18th 2002. Dr. Din Ismail was responsible for the presentation. Classical allergic reactions have been divided into two main groups, where the body defence cells (lymphocytes) react in different ways to specific stimuli depending on how they have been programmed within the body. Some lymphocytes (Th1) produce a reaction similar to the tuberculin reaction which is involved in delayed hypersensitivity and other cells (Th2) respond to stimuli with a reaction associated with asthma. This paper showed that pigeon fanciers lung does not fall simply into one or the other of these groups of reaction and that the allergic problem in pigeon fanciers has a more complex basis. This means that further studies into the causes and the manner in which the allergic reaction develops have to take into account that the way in which the allergic reaction develops in pigeon fanciers is not straight forward and is the result of several different interacting elements.

Stockholm is a beautiful city and provided a venue for a highly successful meeting.

The paper that was presented can be viewed here