Serum tryptase levels in atopic and nonatopic children

• Published in: Journal of allergy and clinical immunology Vol. 124; no. 4; pp. 845 - 848
• Main Authors: Komarow, Hirsh D., MD, Hu, Zonghui, PhD, Brittain, Erica, PhD, Uzzaman, Ashraf, MD, Gaskins, Donna, RN, Metcalfe, Dean D., MD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Mosby, Inc 01.10.2009; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age; Allergies; Allergy and Immunology; Child; Child, Preschool; Dermatitis; Ethnicity; Female; Food allergies; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Hypersensitivity - blood; Hypersensitivity - diagnosis; Immunoglobulin E - blood; Infant; Male; Mast Cells - enzymology; Mast Cells - immunology; Population; Race; Reference Values; Statistical analysis; Tryptases - blood
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2009.06.040
• ISSN: 0091-6749

The patients were categorized as either nonatopic (n = 44) or atopic (n = 153), according to the presence of allergic symptoms and a tendency to produce IgE antibodies, as indicated by increased total IgE levels, specific IgE testing (ImmunoCAP; Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden), or cutaneous prick testing to commonly encountered environmental allergens.3 None of the patients had a documented history of Hymenoptera venom allergy or a concurrent illness that would cause an increase in tryptase values nor could we identify a confounding effect of therapies used on tryptase values. There was no statistically significant difference between nonatopic subjects and atopic subjects (median, 3.44 vs 3.56 ng/mL; P = .93; 95% prediction intervals, 0.64-6.77 and 0.98-10.80, respectively). Because these data were not normally distributed, nonparametric statistical analysis was performed based on the median (Wilcoxon rank sum test).