First case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis

Case Report  Open Access  |  | Full Text    |    Asia Pac Allergy. 2013 Jan;3(1):70-73. English. Published online 2013 Jan 30.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5415/apallergy.2013.3.1.70  Copyright © 2013. Asia Pacific Association of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology. A case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis Seung-Eun Lee,1,2,3 Suh-Young Lee,1,2,3 Eun-Jung Jo,1,2,3 Mi-Young Kim,1,2,3 Min-Suk Yang,1,2,4 Yoon-Seok Chang,1,2,3 and Sae-Hoon Kim1,2,3 1Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-799, Korea. 2Institute of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul 110-799, Korea. 3Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam 463-802, Korea. 4Department of Internal Medicine, SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center, Seoul 156-707, Korea.  Correspondence: Sae-Hoon Kim. Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 82 Gumi-ro 173 Beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 463-802, Korea. Tel: +82-31-787-7046, Fax: +82-31-787-4052,Email: shkrins@gmail.com  Received December 11, 2012; Accepted December 19, 2012. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Taurine is one of most abundant free amino acids in mammalian tissue. It has been used for various health functional foods as a main ingredient in food industry. A 33-year-old female patient repeatedly experienced generalized itching, urticaria, dyspnea and dizziness after drinking taurine-containing drinks. The patient showed positive response to oral challenge tests with taurine-containing drinks. The patient also showed positive response with synthetic taurine but not with natural taurine. Skin prick test and basophil activation test with the synthetic taurine were negative. To our knowledge, there has been no report of taurine-induced hypersensitivity reactions. We herein report the first case of taurine-containing drink induced anaphylaxis, especially by synthetic taurine.