On-Site Citations and Insights: The Twelfth International Congress of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Washington, D.C., October 20–25, 1985 Selected Reports and Summaries

Abstract

In accordance with established practice and convention, the program of the International Congress of Allergology included plenary sessions, symposia, workshops, round-table conferences, poster presentations, and “Meet the Professor” breakfasts, as well as numerous original papers delivered concurrently. Although many of the sessions were actual recapitulations of previously delivered material, they were well attended. At no time during the sessions was the question raised about the safety and efficacy of the information provided and, in fact, it would have been considered heretical to express the thought that knowledge about immunoglobulins, lymphocytes, mediators, etc., could be harmful and impair a clinician's ability to relate well to patients. In any case, a reporter covering the meeting would have to concentrate on the papers that presented unquestionably original data relevant to the understanding and treatment of clinical allergic problems. The abstracts abstracted here—“Abstracts of Abstracts”—out of a total of 726 included on the program (428 presented in concurrent sessions and 298 in poster form) hopefully meet these criteria of originality and clinical relevance. The key words and the abstract number (in parentheses) given for each summary may encourage selective reading and facilitate reference to the full abstracts, which have already been published (Annals of Allergy 55(2), 1985, Part II).