[The atopy enigmas and the present validity of the concept of heteroallergy].
The phenomena of altered reactivity refer to all pathological symptoms, neither toxic nor infectious, that a human or animal organism presents after contact with some organic substance, dead or alive, and which are due to a state of altered reaction based on an antigen-antibody mechanism. It was named "Allergy" by Von Pirquet. Within the field of allergy Coca and colleagues distinguished a special type which they called "Atopy" (1931). In the course of time the allergic character of the atopic processes such as bronchial asthma, hay fever and atopic dermatitis was doubteld, and nowadays it is thought that atopy is a "constitutional disreaction of the skin and/or mucos, frecuently associated with immunological anomalies which are hardly ever its cause". The term "Heteroallergy" used by Dujardin and Decombe (1925) refers to the Fact that a permanent state of latent allergy increases the general reactivity of the organism that may present pathological symptoms. Although forgotten in the medical literature the concept is still alive and it has been mentioned subsecuently by several authors such as Jiménez Díaz (1932), Strauss and Kligman (1957) and Heilmeyer (1962).
Aguilar
Alfredo Robledo
AR
D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology