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Informal mentoring is based on a natural match between a junior individual and a senior one who share mutual interests. It usually aids in the professional and personal development of both parties involved. We reviewed the literature regarding factors that make informal mentoring effective within the medical realm, by searching a major academic search engine, Web of Knowledge, for the term "informal mentor". Our main research questions concerned the factors that lead to a successful informal mentorship process. A salient finding arising is that the success of informal mentorships hinges on the communication skills of mentor and protégé, their level of commitment, and the chemistry between the partakers. Good informal mentorships impose requirements on both mentors and protégés and rest on shared expectations.

Eotaxin is a chemokine with a selective eosinophil chemoattraction and its receptor is the chemokine receptor CCR3. The presence of CCR3 on Th2 lymphocytes is of particular interest. This work was performed to evaluate circulating level of chemokine eotaxin and CCR3 expression in allergic patients. It included 60 patients [23 (38.3%) with asthma, 20 (33.4%) with allergic rhinitis and 17 (28.3%) with skin allergy] and 12 controls. The level of plasma eotaxin & CCR3 expression on CD4+ T cells were determined by ELISA & flowcytometry respectively. Both plasma eotaxin level and expression of CCR3 on CD4+ T cells were higher in allergic patients than controls in different types of allergy. In conclusion, plasma eotaxin concentration is a candidate biological marker for the evaluation of allergic diseases.

We investigated 120 patients suspected clinically to have pulmonary aspergillosis with different clinical manifestations "aspergilloma (Subgroup A), allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (Subgroup B) and invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (Subgroup C)" and correlated between their clinical and laboratory findings and endogenous specific aflatoxin production. They were subjected to isolation of Aspergillus strains, measurement of serum total IgE and specific Aspergillus IgG by ELISA and identification of aflatoxin producing Aspergillus strains using fluorescence analysis of spectroline. Aspergillus was isolated from 45 patients (37.5%). Subgroup A had a negative statistically non-significant correlation between clinical and laboratory findings as regard total IgE and for Aspergillus IgG (only haemoptysis &weight loss had significant correlation with aspergillus IgG). Subgroup B & Subgroup C had positive, statistically significant correlation &negative statistically non significant correlation respectively as regard all clinical findings and both total IgE & serum IgG. This study also showed that 6 Aspergillus strains out of 45(13.3%) produced endogenous aflatoxin. It is concluded that a significant correlation that exists between clinical and serological findings in allergic pulmonary aspergillosis. Aflatoxins may be produced in vivo by strains of Aspergillus and may result in manifestations similar to those caused by ingestion of aflatoxin in food.