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Abstract
Purpose
Serum total and specific IgE levels have been widely used to diagnose allergic disease. However, it has recently been suggested that serum total IgE does not properly reflect specific IgE. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical significance of serum total IgE in pediatric allergic disease.
Methods
This study included 633 patients who visited Kyungpook National University Children's Hospital between March 2013 and April 2015. We used immunoCAP, an inhalant multiple allergen simultaneous test (MAST), and food MAST to measure specific IgE. We used a skin prick test in some patients and measured serum total IgE, eosinophil count, and serum eosinophil cationic protein in all patients.
Results
There was a positive correlation between serum total IgE and antigen level in the inhalant immunoCAP test. Specifically, the sum of immunoCAP levels was highly correlated with serum total IgE (r=0.631, P<0.001). Moreover, there was a positive correlation between serum total IgE and the sum of food immunoCAP levels (r=0.323, P<0.001). Among the food immunoCAP antigens, milk was highly correlated with serum total IgE (r=0.558, P<0.001). There was a positive correlation between serum total IgE and the sum of class levels of inhalant/food MAST tests (r=0.709, P<0.001 and r=0.686, P<0.001, respectively). There was also a positive correlation between serum total IgE and the number of positive skin prick tests (r=0.445, P<0.001).
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Fig. 3.
Comparison of total IgE levels between disease groups. BA, bronchial asthma; AR, allergic rhinitis; AD, atopic dermatitis; U, urticarial; FA, food allergy; NAR, nonallergic rhinitis.
Fig. 4.
(A) Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of 6 inhalant immuno-CAP levels (n=256). (B) Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of 6 inhalant immunoCAP levels excluding subjects who showed positive values to other allergens in multiple allergosorbent test (n=210).
Fig. 5.
(A) Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of 6 food immunoCAP levels (n=263). (B) Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of 6 food immunoCAP levels excluding subjects who showed positive values to other allergens in multiple allergosorbent test (n=169).
Fig. 6.
Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of class levels of inhalant multiple allergosorbent test (MAST) (n=181).
Fig. 7.
Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of class levels of food multiple allergosorbent test (MAST) (n=272)
Fig. 8.
Correlation between serum total IgE and sum of the number of positive skin prick test (n=98).
Table 1.
Correlation between total IgE and immunoCAP levels
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