Allergy to insects in Japan. I. The reaginic sensitivity to moth and butterfly in patients with bronchial asthma

Abstract

A high frequency of reaginic sensitivity to moth and butterfly extracts was shown in 66 randomly selected patients with bronchial asthma. Thirty-seven (56.1%) of these 66 patients showed positive intradermal reactions to 1:10,000 dilution of moth allergen and 34 patients (51.5%) had positive reactions to 1:10,000 butterfly allergen. These positive responses were as frequent as those to Candida or house dust which are recognized as the most commonly reactive allergens in Japan. Radioallergosorbent tests (RAST) showed that 20 of 66 sera were positive to moth and 22 sera were positive to butterfly, which indicates that about 1/3 of patients with bronchial asthma had specific IgE to moth and butterfly in the sera. Bronchial testing revealed that skin reaction-positive and RAST-positive patients were commonly provoked by specific allergen but skin reaction-negative and RAST-negative patients were not. These data suggest that moth and butterfly emanations could cause allergy-induced bronchial asthma in certain patients. Since moths are attracted readily to artificial lights and often fly into houses, these insects are especially suspect as important factors in extrinsic asthma.