Role of toxocariasis in some allergic skin diseases

ABSTRACT

Allergic skin diseases are cutaneous reaction attributed to multiple potential causes. One of these causes is toxocaral infection. In order to explore its role we examined two groups of children suffering from atopic dermatitis [AD] [26 children aging up to 15 years Group I] and chronic idiopathic urticaria [CIU] 24 children of the same age [Group II]. In addition to 30 apparently healthy children free from any skin disease, they were considered as control group [Group III]. Antitoxocaral IgG antibodies detected by ELISA were found among 15%. 21% and 10% of the three groups respectively with a statistical significant difference in the chronic idiopathic urticarial group [CIU] and the level of antitoxocaral IgG was significantly higher among the two groups versus the control one [P<0.05]. Specific antitoxocaral IgE detected by immunosorbent agglutination assay [ISAGA] revealed that, positivities to specific IgE were 7.7% and 12.5% in the atopic dermatitis and chronic idiopathic urticarial groups respectively with a high statistical significant difference versus the control group [P<0.001]. Estimation of eosinophils among the different groups revealed that, eosinophilia was found among the examined groups with a highly staistical significant difference than the control [P<0.001] and hypereosinophilia was present in patients showed positivity for IgE specific for toxocaral infection. It could be concluded that, toxocaral infection most probably has a role in some idiopathic skin allergic diseases as atopic dermatitis and chronic idiopathic urticaria