European database for primary immunodeficiencies

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “The European internet-based patient and research database for primary immunodeficiencies: results 2004-06.” (Clin Exp Immunol. 2007 Feb;147(2):306-12). Authors are Eades-Perner AM, Gathmann B, Knerr V, et al., from the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany. Because primary immunodeficiencies (PID) are rare diseases, transnational studies are essential to maximize the scientific outcome and lead to improved diagnosis and therapy. Immunologists in Europe have united to determine the prevalence of PID in Europe and to establish and evaluate harmonized guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of PID as well as to improve the awareness of PID in Europe. In order to achieve this aim they have developed an internet-based database for clinical and research data on patients with PID. This database forms the platform for studies of demographics, the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies and the identification of novel disease-associated genes. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.