Skin prick testing in atopic eczema: atopic to what and at what age?
- PDF / 201,752 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 595.22 x 842 pts (A4) Page_size
- 30 Downloads / 168 Views
Skin prick testing in atopic eczema: atopic to what and at what age? Kam Lun Hon, Shuxin Susan Wang, Wing Lam Wong, Wing Kwan Poon, Ka Yi Mak, Ting Fan Leung Hong Kong, China
Original article
Background: Atopic eczema is a common and distressing disease. This study aimed to review the age-dependent pattern of atopic sensitization to food and aeroallergens in patients with eczema by skin prick testing. Methods: The results of skin prick test (SPT), serum IgE, bronchial challenge test, and family history of atopy in eczema patients seen at a pediatric dermatology clinic were reviewed. Results: SPT results were available in 816 eczema patients. In these patients, 90% had atopic sensitization to at least one aeroallergen, 69% to at least one food allergen, and 94% to at least one allergen by SPT. Together with a family history of atopy in parents or siblings and a personal history of airway atopies, 97% and 99.8% of the patients were atopic, respectively. Bronchial hyper-reactivity (BHR) was demonstrated in 44% of 339 patients. Aeroallergen was more prevalent than food allergen sensitization among children older than 10 years. The mites (D. pteronysissnus, D. farinae and Blomia Tropicalis) were the most prevalent allergens regardless of age and BHR, but D. pteronysissnus and D. farinae sensitization were more prevalent among BHRpositive patients. Beef is the least sensitized food protein in all ages.
Key words: aeroallergens; atopic dermatitis; eczema; food allergens; IgE; skin prick test
Introduction
C
Author Affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China (Hon KL, Wang SS, Wong WL, Poon WK, Mak KY, Leung TF)
hildhood eczema is a distressing disease associated with atopy.[1,2] Disease onset is usually before 5 years of age in the majority of patients.[1,3] The presence of atopy, according to the theory of atopic march, implies that young children with eczema may develop airway allergy such as asthma or allergic rhinitis later in life.[4,5] Atopy is defined clinically (personal or family history of eczema, asthma or allergic rhinitis) and by laboratory tests (such as positive skin prick reaction to common food and aeroallergens or elevated serum IgE levels above laboratory reference range for age).[6-9] It is important to understand what allergens are prevalent in the triggering and mediation of the atopic process.[10,11] In a study involving 90 patients with eczema, dust mite sensitization was found to be more prevalent in older children than infants.[8] Cow's milk sensitization only occurred in one-tenth of these patients. Prevalence of sensitization to common aeroallergens, but not food allergens, was generally higher in children beyond 5 years of age. It was also shown that young infants were generally naive to aeroallergens but became sensitized to the D. Pteronyssinus in the next 12 months of age beyond infancy.[9] Furthermore, 80% of these infants were not sensitized to cow's milk and none sensitized to soybean. This study aimed to re
Data Loading...
