A Study of Serum Total and House Dust Mite-Specific IgE, and ECP Levels in Healthy Korean Children Under 7 Years of Age / 소아알레르기및호흡기학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPUSE Serum IgE have been shown to be related to allergic disease and used for an initial diagnosis of allergic diseases. House dust mite such as Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus(Dp) and D. farinae(Df) is very important for inhalant allergens, which may be a cause and/or triggering factor of atopic diseases. On the other hand, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) causes epithelial damages of the airway, and bronchial hyperresponsiveness has been used as a useful indication of allergic inflammation. To date, there are few studies on the longitudinal patterns of total and inhalant allergen-specific IgE, and ECP in normal children in Korea. The present study was performed to determine the reference levels of serum total and Dp- and Df-specific IgE and ECP in healthy children under 7 years of age by the groups of different age and gender. METHODS: Total, and Dp- and Df-specific IgE and ECP concentrations were measured by fluoroimmunoassay(UniCAP, Pharmacia-UpJohn, Sweden) in serum from 449 healthy children under 7 years of age by using a population-based cohort followed from 1996 through 1997. All subjects were enrolled from eight large health organizations in geographically defined area such as Seoul and four local cities. RESULTS: Serum total IgE concentration showed steady increase with age from birth to 4 years, and a plateau. In contrast, Dp- and Df-IgE levels showed apparently continuous increments after 4 years of age. ECP showed variable increase until 4 years of age and slow decrease afterwards. There were no statistically significant differences in those results by gender and/or the living area, but much higher increments of Dp- and Df-IgE of boys from 3 years of age through 6 years were found. CONCLUSION: We found feasible results of total, Dp- and Df-specific IgE, and ECP in serum from healthy children under seven years of age, which may be useful for a reference.