title: [Allergy to kiwi: an unrecognized allergy].
abstract: We reported 4 cases of an uncommon hypersensitivity: hypersensitivity to kiwi fruit. The clinical reactions, essentially buccal, occurred few minutes after ingestion of the fruit. The Radio Allergo Sorbent Test were positive in the 4 cases. The skin tests, with fresh extracts of kiwi, made in 3 cases were dramatically positive, while they are negative in controls patients. The kiwi fruit initially comes from China, but is now produced in France, and especially in Poitou-Charente. It contains a proteolytic enzyme call Actinidin with physical and chemical properties similar to those of Papain, who can perhaps explain this hypersensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Service de pneumologie, CHU la Milètrie, Poitiers.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Doré
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Breuil
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Meurice
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Véron
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Underner
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Patte
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*; D005638:Fruit; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011852:Radioallergosorbent Test; D012882:Skin Tests
vernacular_title: Allergie au kiwi: une allergie méconnue.