Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Allergy blood tests and asthma severity in cats
By van Eeden, Megan E et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2020·Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Serum allergen-specific IgE reactivity: is there an association with clinical severity and airway eosinophilia in asthmatic cats?
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
An indoor cat diagnosed with asthma was found to have a cough as the main symptom. Researchers tested the cat's blood for specific allergens and discovered that most cats with asthma had multiple allergies. However, the number of allergens or the strength of the allergic response did not directly relate to how severe the cat's symptoms were. This suggests that knowing which allergens affect the cat can help in managing its asthma, even if the allergy tests show varying levels of reactivity.
People also search for: cat asthma symptoms · indoor cat cough treatment · cat allergy testing results
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of serum allergen-specific IgE testing in cats with a clinical diagnosis of asthma and to determine if the number of allergens with positive IgE reactivity and magnitude of positive IgE responses would be associated with the severity of clinical signs or airway eosinophilia. METHODS: Medical records from 2008 to 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Inclusion required a diagnosis of feline asthma based on consistent clinicopathologic features and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cytology with >10% eosinophils; additionally, cats needed to have the results of serum allergen-specific IgE tests. RESULTS: Eighteen cases satisfied the inclusion criteria. Median age was 5 years and the most common presenting clinical sign was cough (n = 10/18). Most cats lived exclusively indoors (n = 13/18). The median percentage of BAL eosinophils was 47%. Serum allergen-specific IgE testing supported an underlying allergic etiology in 14/18 (78%) cats, with all but one having polysensitization. The severity of clinical signs and magnitude of airway eosinophilia did not correlate with the degree of positive IgE reactivity. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This study identified a strong association between the identification of allergen-specific IgE and cats with asthma, and the majority of these cats were polysensitized. However, larger numbers of allergens with positive IgE reactivity or magnitude of IgE reactivity were not significantly associated with clinical severity or airway eosinophilia. Knowledge of positive allergen-specific IgE results could guide allergen avoidance, regardless of the magnitude of IgE reactivity.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32167403/