title: [Relation of different food allergens to different age of asthmatic patients].
abstract: A total of 1,070 cases of bronchial asthma, age from 3 to 70 years, were analyzed for their hypersensitivity to the four most common food allergens, egg white, milk, shrimp and peanuts. The severity of hypersensitivity was classified as mild, moderate and severe based on the concentration of allergen specific IgE in the sera. Results showed that there were 16.2% patients allergic to egg white, 22.3% allergic to milk, 12.6% allergic to peanuts and 34.9% allergic to shrimp. The incidence and severity varied with age. For milk and egg white allergy, the age with highest incidence rate appeared to be under 10 years old. In this age group, there were 38.1% patients allergic to milk, 8.9% of them were moderate hypersensitivity and the rest were mild hypersensitivity. There were 27.3% patients allergic to egg white, 17.3% of them were moderate hypersensitivity and the rest were mild hypersensitivity. For shrimp and peanuts allergy, the age with highest incidence rate appeared to be 11 to 20 years old. In this age group, there were 51.9% patients allergic to shrimp, 42.9% of them were moderate hypersensitivity and the rest were mild hypersensitivity. There were 18.2% patients allergic to peanuts, 25.0% of them were moderate hypersensitivity and the rest were mild hypersensitivity. We concluded that different age of asthmatic patients were affected by different food allergen. Shrimp and peanuts allergy occurred later and more severe than milk and egg white allergy, however, most of them were mild hypersensitivity and might be only partially contributed to their asthmatic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Cathay General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: W C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D010367:Arachis / Q000276:immunology; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D033364:Decapoda / Q000276:immunology; D004527:Egg Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008894:Milk Proteins / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D004527:Egg Proteins; D008894:Milk Proteins; D007073:Immunoglobulin E