title: Factors affecting allergen-specific IgE serum levels in cats.
abstract: Pruritic skin diseases are common in cats and demand rigorous diagnostic workup for finding an underlying etiology. Measurement of a serum allergen-specific IgE in a pruritic cat is often used to make or confirm the diagnosis of a skin hypersensitivity disease, although current evidence suggests that elevated allergen-specific IgE do not always correlate with a clinical disease and vice versa. The aim of the study was to to assess the possible influence of age, deworming status, lifestyle, flea treatment, and gender on allergen-specific IgE levels and to evaluate the reliability of IgE testing in predicting the final diagnosis of a pruritic cat. For this purpose sera of 179 cats with pruritus of different causes and 20 healthy cats were evaluated for allergen-specific IgE against environmental, food and flea allergens using the Fc-epsilon receptor based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. The results of the study showed positive correlation between age, outdoor life style, absence of deworming, absence of flea control measures and levels of allergen-specific IgE. Gender and living area (urban versus rural) did not seem to affect the formation of allergen-specific IgE. According to these findings, evaluating allergen-specific IgE levels, is not a reliable test to diagnose hypersensitivity to food or environmental allergens in cats. On the contrary, this test can be successfully used for diagnosing feline flea bite hypersensitivity.
authors: Department of Therapy, Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Belova
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Wilhelm
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Linek
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Beco
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Fontaine
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Bergvall
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Favrot
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D002415:Cats; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D005260:Female; D007073:Immunoglobulin E / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D011537:Pruritus / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000662:veterinary*; D017455:Receptors, IgE / Q000276:immunology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D017455:Receptors, IgE; D007073:Immunoglobulin E