Atopy

Atopy /ˈætəpiː/Greek ἀτοπία - placelessness, out of place, special, unusual, extraordinary) or atopic syndrome is a predisposition toward developing certain allergic hypersensitivity reactions.

Atopy may have a hereditary component, although contact with the allergen must occur before the hypersensitivity reaction can develop.

The term atopy was coined by Coca and Cooke in 1923. Many physicians and scientists use the term "atopy" for any IgE-mediated reaction (even those that are appropriate and proportional to the antigen), but many pediatricians reserve the word "atopy" for a genetically mediated predisposition to an excessive IgE reaction.

Signs and symptoms

Atopy (atopic syndrome) is a syndrome characterized by a tendency to be “hyperallergic”. A person with atopy typically presents with one or more of the following: eczema (atopic dermatitis), allergic rhinitis (hay fever), or allergic asthma. Some patients with atopy display what is referred to as the “allergic triad” of symptoms, i.e. all three of the aforementioned conditions. Patients with atopy also have a tendency to have food allergies, allergic conjunctivitis, and other symptoms characterized by their hyperallergic state. For example, eosinophilic esophagitis is found to be associated with atopic allergies.

Atopy (philosophy)

Atopy (Greek ατοπία, atopía - placelessness, unclassifiable, of high originality; Socrates has often been called "átopos") describes the ineffability of things or emotions that are seldom experienced, that are outstanding and that are original in the strict sense. The term depicts a certain quality (of experience) that can be observed within oneself or within others. It does not depict an ideal, although it has been abused to do so, for example by the genius-cult during the era of romanticism.

Phenomenon, origin

A human being in love, no matter at whom or what his adoration and affection is pointed at—be it a beloved person, a god in some mystical sense or an idol—is not able to reduce the "item" of his love down to certain characteristics, he claims his "obscure object of desire" to be unique and incomparable.

The attribution of characteristics from the banal everyday world would, in the eye of the one being seriously in love, mean betrayal (sacrilege) to the very own love itself. Up until now, no one has managed to describe and analyze this more strikingly than Roland Barthes in his famous and acclaimed collection of essays A Lover's Discourse: Fragments, published in 1977. But if you look at it more closely, this is an everyday phenomenon each and every mere mortal is encountering: parents can describe, praise or curse the relation between them and their children—but they realize at the same time that the depth and the profoundness of their feelings for their offspring are atopical, or ineffable.