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. 2020 Aug 12:16:74.
doi: 10.1186/s13223-020-00471-9. eCollection 2020.

Pollen allergen skin test and specific IgE reactivity among Filipinos: a community-based study

Maureen Sabit  1   2   3 , Cecil Wong  4 , Agnes Andaya  4 , John Donnie Ramos  1   2   3
Affiliations

Pollen allergen skin test and specific IgE reactivity among Filipinos: a community-based study

Maureen Sabit et al. Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: Despite the clinical importance of pollen allergens among Filipinos, few studies delve into the sensitization profiles of Filipinos against pollen allergens. This study determined the sensitization profile of Filipinos to pollen using skin prick test (SPT) and pollen-specific ELISA.

Methods: Pollen from fifteen selected plant sources was collected and extracted for use in sensitization tests. Volunteers were interviewed for their clinical history prior to blood sampling and SPT. The blood samples collected were assessed using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).

Results: The best panel of pollen allergens for the skin prick test was Mangifera indica (64%), Acacia auriculiformis (28%), Mimosa spp. (25%) Amaranthus spinosus (22%), Lantana camara (20%), Pilea microphylla (16%) and Dichanthium aristatum (15%). Young adults had more sensitizations to pollen than among early childhood and elderly. There were more allergic subjects that have rhinitis (61%) than asthma (42%) and atopic dermatitis (35%). Pollen-specific IgE levels show low percent reactivity as compared to the skin test with Cocos nucifera obtaining the highest IgE reactivity (21%).

Conclusions: Pollen allergens from both arboreal and herbaceous plants used in this study yielded positive reactivities for both skin tests and specific IgE tests.

Keywords: Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Pollen allergen; Sensitization; Skin prick tests.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sensitization profile of allergic subjects across age groups: childhood (2–9 years old), adolescence (10–19 years old), young adults (20–40 years old), middle-aged adults (41–60 years old) and elderly (61 years old and above)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sensitization profile of allergic subjects across age groups: childhood (2–9 years old), adolescence (10–19 years old), young adults (20–40 years old), middle-aged adults (41–60 years old) and elderly (61 years old and above)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Sensitization profile of 130 Filipino allergic patients against pollen allergens (brown—arboreal plants; gray—herbaceous weeds) using specific-IgE ELISA. Broken lines denote the cut-off values computed as X¯±2SD of 50 control subjects with Total IgE of ≤ 100 IU/mL
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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