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Diagnosing immediate drug hypersensitivity reactions (IDHRs) can pose a significant challenge and there is an urgent need for safe and reliable tests. Evidence has emerged that the basophil activation test (BAT), an in vitro assay that mirrors the in vivo response, can be a complementary test for many drugs. In this position paper, members of Task Force (TF) "Basophil activation test in the evaluation of Drug Hypersensitivity Reactions" from the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) present the data from a survey about the use and utility of BAT in IDHRs in Europe. The survey results indicate that there is a great interest for using BAT especially for diagnosing IDHRs. However, there are still main needs, mainly in the standardization of the protocols. Subsequently consensus‐based recommendations were formulated for: (i) Technical aspects of BAT in IDHRs including type of sample, management of drugs, flow cytometry protocols, interpretation of the results; and (ii) Drug‐specific aspects that should be taken into account when performing BAT in relation to betalactams, neuromuscular blocking agents, fluoroquinolones, chlorhexidine, opioids, radio contrast media, chemotherapeutics, biological agents, nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs, COVID vaccine, and excipients. Moreover, aspects in the evaluation of pediatric population have also been considered. All this indicates that BAT offers the clinician and laboratory a complementary tool for a safe diagnostic for IDHRs, although its place in the diagnostic algorithm depends on the drug class and patient population (phenotype, geography, and age). The standardization of BAT is important for generalizing this method beyond the individual laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the basophil activation test (BAT) as a diagnostic tool for managing patients with IgE-mediated allergies. The authors emphasize the need for standardization and external quality assurance (EQA) of laboratory protocols and results interpretation. A task force was created to develop a consensus protocol for BAT-EQA, and round robin tests were conducted to train participating laboratories. The article presents a proposed standard operating protocol for BAT and highlights the importance of EQA for routine implementation of the assay. The authors conclude that the consensus protocol provides acceptable inter- and intralaboratory variability and can be implemented across Europe. [Extracted from the article]

Diffusion of atoms or molecules (generally: particles) is driven by differences and gradients of the chemical potential of the particles in their accessible space. If the difference of the chemical potential is due to differences of concentrations alone, one arrives at the diffusion equations of Fick. The diffusion coefficients are described in known models by vibrations of atoms in condensed matter which cause the exchange of preferentially neutral particles with neighbouring particles, impurities, interstitial places and vacancies near or on surfaces, grain boundaries, dislocation lines and in the homogeneous bulk. The rates of electronic transitions, however, increase also in melts and solids of chemically bonded particles with increasing temperature. Such transitions cause large fluctuating deviations of the local energy, the charge distribution and the local chemical and electrical potentials. The fluctuating deviations interact with the core ions and drive particles to interchange. This mechanism that supplements the known mechanisms of diffusion has not yet found adequate attention in the literature until now. Foundations, experimental results, evidence and consequences for diffusion are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milestones in the development of thermodynamics are the discovery of the absolute temperature scale and the recognition that differential "heat" is a form of energy given as the product of absolute temperature and differential entropy. Following a new path, the last statement results from a careful analysis of the heat transfer applying the first theorem without reference to the usual cycles in thermodynamics. This confirms also characteristic properties of entropy. In particular, the total entropy can never decrease in a process. In thermal equilibrium, the differential thermal energy is proportional to the differential entropy with the constant of proportionality being the temperature of the heat and entropy. Hence, thermal energy and entropy are transferred simultaneously into the same storage facilities, some of which are mentioned. However, the issue which one is the superior quantity is obsolete. The entropy is maximum for a given amount of exchanged thermal energy and, vice versa, for a given amount of exchanged entropy the concomitant energy is minimum. We calculate the thermal energy and entropy of phonons (as bosons) in oscillators and of electrons (as fermions) in their states of solids and melts as examples from statistical thermodynamics. The thermal energy or heat is the sum of the energies of all bosons and fermions in their elementary states or quantum states according to Bose Einstein and Fermi Dirac statistics in thermal equilibrium minus the total energy in the limit T→0 K. The entropy can be written as mixing entropy of all of these quantum states weighted with their occupancies, in agreement with an earlier publication. Thus, entropy is a logarithmic metrics of the number of all possible variants to distribute the respective total energy over all elementary states in thermal equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The viscosity of fluids and melts is an important characteristic to steer processes and reactions of materials, to use lubricants and to fabricate diverse products of glass. To steer such fabrication processes reliably and free of failures one necessarily needs to understand and use the true data of the viscosity. The forces applied to measure the viscosity act also to accelerate parts of the samples and particularly to deform them elastically. To evaluate the viscosity one must necessarily consider such ‘side reactions’. Cylindrical samples under longitudinal deformation are demonstrated to deform rather elastically than by viscous flow upon application of the load, e. g. Neglecting this effect the ’viscosity’ apparently decreasing with increasing load may be misinterpreted as non‐Newtonian viscosity. In fact, it represents the change from viscous to elastic behaviour with decreasing time interval of the application of force. Furthermore, production of entropy during deformation for measurement has to be taken into account adequately. The sample warms up during heavy deformation. If the viscosity depends strongly on the temperature, one must take into account that temperature and viscosity change with the intensity of the load. Then the so called ’shear thinning’ is rather ’sheer heating’. This is demonstrated quantitatively with data of the viscosity as a function of the load, which have recently been published using capillary rheometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]