title: Peach allergy pattern: experience in 70 patients.
abstract: We report the clinical characteristics of peach allergy encountered in a population of peach-allergic patients. We evaluated 165 patients. The 70 peach-allergic patients were diagnosed through clinical history, the skin prick-prick test, and open oral challenge and rub tests to peach. As a pollinic control group, 95 pollen-allergic patients were also evaluated. Some 49% of the patients were male and 51% female. The mean age was 20 +/- 8 years. Oral allergy syndrome (86%) was the most common symptom, followed by contact urticaria (61%) and systemic symptoms (26%). Some 67% of the patients were allergic to peach pulp and 36% reported symptoms related to canned peach. Canned peach and pulp symptoms were statistically associated (P < 0.01), and symptoms to canned peach were more frequently reported by patients with systemic symptoms (P < 0.05). On evaluation of the peach-allergic patients' characteristics, three risk factors--allergy to peach pulp, allergy to canned peach, and peach allergy in non-pollen-allergic patients--were found, indicating development of systemic symptoms on eating peach. Most of the peach-allergic patients (81%) also had pollen allergy, which was linked to a higher prevalence of asthma (73%) than in the pollen-allergic patients of the control group (48%); this difference was statistically significant (P < 0.01). Finally, two groups were clearly defined by the seriousness of the peach allergy--the non-pollen-allergic patients were more predisposed to the occurrence of systemic symptoms (> 50%), and the pollen-allergic patients to asthma (> 70%).
authors.affiliation: Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cuesta-Herranz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lázaro
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: de las Heras
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lluch
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Figueredo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Umpierrez
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cuesta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D005519:Food Preservation; D005638:Fruit / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011058:Pollen / Q000276:immunology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012882:Skin Tests
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens