Are anti-Phl p 12 IgE levels predictive of oral allergy syndrome in profilin hypersensitive patients?
Asero, R.; Villalta, D.
European Annals of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 43(6): 184-187
2011
ISSN/ISBN: 1764-1489 PMID: 22360135 Document Number: 652578
In birch pollen-allergic patients the occurrence of clinically relevant crossreactivity to plant-derived foods is clearly related with the level of birch-specific IgE. In profilin-hypersensitive patients this has not been investigated so far. To investigate whether the levels of profilin IgE are predictive of the development of food allergy in hypersensitive patients. IgE specific for Phl p 12, the grass pollen profilin, were measured in 37 subjects monosensitized to profilin with (n = 11) or without (n = 26) oral allergy syndrome (OAS) following the ingestion of plant-derived foods. Patients without a history of OAS showed higher levels of IgE specific for Phl p 12 than patients with OAS (median 4.74 [range 0.7-41.6] KU/L vs 2.14 [range 0.32-10.2] KU/L, respectively) although the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.07). Factors causing the onset of OAS in profilin-hypersensitive patients remain presently unclear.