DDE without item problem, please help !!!

I'm trying to comunicate my application with mIRC 4.6. mIRC has DDE
support, it accepts data pokes and data request in some topics. The
problem is that all topics has not Items !!!, and when i try to send
data or request data from a given topic does not work for that reason.
How can i poke or request data from a topic with no item ??. Well, if
you read the mIRC help, it says for example:

Topic : CHANNELS
Item  : None

Of course i tryied writing None in the item property of the DDEClient
object but it doesn't works.

Well, i appreciate the help very much. please answer me in news and by
mail, my addresses are.

j...@satlink.com, sbat...@bigfoot.com, sbat...@usa.net

I appreciate if you can answer my with carbon copy to all the address
because i have problems with some.

Thanx.