title: Relationships between skin test, specific IgE and levels of cytokines in patients with penicillin allergy.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between skin test, specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E and cytokines in penicillin allergy. We collected the sera of 259 patients with historical positive skin test to penicillins, with immediate positive skin test and with a negative skin test results. The positive rate of specific IgE antibodies in 259 patients was 62.2% (161) by using radioallergosorbent test (RAST). Of the eight kinds of antigenic determinants, the positive rates of specific IgE to major and minor determinants were 43.63% (113) and 52.51% (136), respectively (p < 0.05). In 122 patients with immediate positive skin test, when the degrees of skin test were +, 2+, 3+ and 4+, the positive rates of specific IgE were 45.7, 57.1, 85.2 and 100%, respectively. The levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-13 and interferon (IFN)-gamma in the sera of patients with positive skin test were significantly increased with the degree of positive skin test (p < 0.05). The combined use of major and minor determinants in RAST offers the better test for the detection of penicillin-specific IgE antibodies. IL-4, IL-13 and IFN-gamma play important roles in penicillin allergy.
authors: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China. qiao@zzu.edu.cn
authors: H-L
authors: HL
authors: Qiao
authors: J-H
authors: JH
authors: Liu
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Z-M
authors: ZM
authors: Dong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000906:Antibodies / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D004342:Drug Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006969:Hypersensitivity, Immediate / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood; D018793:Interleukin-13 / Q000097:blood; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D010406:Penicillins / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011852:Radioallergosorbent Test; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012882:Skin Tests; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies; D016207:Cytokines; D000939:Epitopes; D018793:Interleukin-13; D010406:Penicillins; D015847:Interleukin-4; D007073:Immunoglobulin E; D007371:Interferon-gamma