title: Detection of serum IgE antibodies that react with alcuronium and tubocurarine after life-threatening reactions to muscle-relaxant drugs.
abstract: Although anaphylactoid reactions to muscle-relaxant drugs are now well recognised, there has been no general agreement on the mechanism(s) underlying the responses. By covalently coupling alcuronium and tubocurarine to a solid phase carrier and using the resultant complexes in radioimmunoassay experiments with patients' sera and 125I-anti-human IgE, we have found high levels of drug-specific IgE antibodies in the sera of some subjects who reacted to these muscle relaxants. These results provide important supporting evidence that, in some patients at least, life-threatening anaphylactoid reactions to muscle-relaxant drugs are mediated by drug-specific IgE antibodies.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000443:Alcuronium / Q000276:immunology*; D000707:Anaphylaxis / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000032:analysis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009125:Muscle Relaxants, Central / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014117:Toxiferine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D014403:Tubocurarine / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D009125:Muscle Relaxants, Central; D007073:Immunoglobulin E; D014117:Toxiferine; D000443:Alcuronium; D014403:Tubocurarine