Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Respiratory allergy induced by exclusive polysensitization to serum albumins of furry animals.
- Journal:
- European annals of allergy and clinical immunology
- Year:
- 2010
- Authors:
- Liccardi, G et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Chest Diseases · Italy
- Species:
- rodent
Plain-English summary
This report discusses a unique case of a 27-year-old woman who developed severe eye and breathing problems after being around various furry animals like cats, dogs, rabbits, and horses. After thorough testing, including skin tests and blood tests, it was found that she was allergic specifically to proteins found in the blood of cows, rabbits, and horses. The results suggest that her allergies were not just limited to common pets but extended to other furry animals as well. The study highlights the importance of testing for a wider range of animal allergens in people who show high levels of allergies to pets, to help them avoid future allergic reactions. Overall, the findings confirm that certain animal proteins can trigger allergic responses in sensitive individuals.
Abstract
In this report we describe un unusual case of exclusive allergic sensitization to furry animals, as a possible study model to speculate about different modalities ofsensitization to allergens of common and less common mammalian species. A 27-year-old woman referred in our Allergological Centre for the occurrence of conjunctival and severe respiratory symptoms after contact with several animals such as cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, cows etc. Patient underwent clinical and anamnestic evaluation including a detailed information on the modality of exposure to different furry animals. Skin-prick-test (SPT) was performed with our routine panel of commercial standardized extracts (Lofarma Laboratories, Milan, Italy). Some animal allergenic extracts (rabbit, horse, rat, mouse, cavia, cow and hamster) have been tested by SPT one week after the routine SPT A blood sample was taken for measurement of total IgE and specific IgE (CAP System, Phadia, Uppsala, Sweden) as well as Immunoblotting procedures. The results of in vivo and in vitro procedures revealed allergic sensitization only to animal-derived allergens. Total IgE were 59.3 kU/L. Immunoblotting showed a specific IgE-mediated sensitization of the patient to cow's, rabbit's and horse's serum albumins (SA). In conclusion, our case report confirms the role of SA as cross-reacting agent in allergic sensitization to furry animals. This finding suggests to perform SPTs to several furry animal allergens in all individuals with high level of allergic sensitization to common pets (cats and/or dogs) in order to identify allergy to other animals and consequently to avoid future exposures at risk.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20648777/