The Clinical Usefulness of IgE Antibodies Against Egg White and Its Components in Korean Children

Original Article  Open Access

|    Allergy Asthma Immunol Res. 2013 May;5(3):138-142. English. Published online 2013 March 07.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4168/aair.2013.5.3.138  Copyright © 2013 The Korean Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology • The Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease The Clinical Usefulness of IgE Antibodies Against Egg White and Its Components in Korean Children Taek Ki Min, You Hoon Jeon, Hyeon Jong Yang and Bok Yang Pyun Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Center, Department of Pediatrics, Soonchunhyang University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.  Correspondence to: Bok Yang Pyun, MD, PhD, Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Center, Department of Pediatrics, Soonchunhyang University Hospital, 22 Daesagwan-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 140-743, Korea. Tel: +82-2-709-9339; Fax: +82-2-794-5471; Email: bypyun@schmc.ac.kr  Received July 11, 2012; Revised September 28, 2012; Accepted October 23, 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.  This article has been cited by 1 article in    This article has been cited by 1 article in  KoMCI Abstract Purpose Egg (egg white) allergies are among the most common food allergies in infants and young children. Serum egg white-specific IgE (sIgE) levels have been shown to be correlated with clinical symptoms, and the predictive decision point of sIgE levels has been proposed and used widely in the clinical setting. However, some patients whose sIgE levels to egg white are higher than the predictive decision point value show no clinical symptoms, and vice versa. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical usefulness of sIgE antibodies to egg white and its components in the diagnosis of egg allergies. Methods Forty-one patients younger than 2 years of age with no experience of egg intake due to concerns regarding allergies or a non-specific clinical response to eggs were enrolled. Total IgE levels and the levels of IgE antibodies specific for egg white and its components (ovomucoid, ovalbumin, and conalbumin) were measured by ImmunoCAP testing. The clinical response of the subjects was confirmed by an open oral food challenge (OFC). Results Fifteen (71.4%) out of 21 patients in the egg white-sIgE ≥2 kU/L group showed a positive response, while 10 (50.0%) out of 20 patients in the egg white-sIgE <2 a="" addition="" against="" an="" analysis.="" and="" antibodies="" based="" between="" components="" differences="" egg="" group="" groups.="" in="" intra-group="" its="" ku="" levels="" negative="" no="" of="" ofc.="" ofc="" on="" open="" p="" positive="" response="" showed="" sige="" significant="" statistically="" the="" there="" to="" were="" white=""> Conclusions Our results show that the sensitivity and specificity of the predictive decision point values for egg white-sIgE antibodies by ImmunoCAP were relatively low in Korean children. In addition, no egg white component predicted the clinical reactivity of the subjects. We suggest that the predictive decision point value for a positive egg oral challenge test by ImmunoCAP should be re-evaluated. Moreover, we suggest that careful personal history recording and challenge tests are necessary for the correct diagnosis of an egg allergy. Keywords: Egg hypersensitivity, egg white proteins.