Are anti-Phl p 12 IgE levels predictive of oral allergy syndrome in profilin hypersensitive patients?

BACKGROUND In birch pollen-allergic patients the occurrence of clinically relevant crossreactivity to plant-derived foods is clearly related with the level of birch-specific IgE. In profilin-hypersensitive patients this has not been investigated so far. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the levels of profilin IgE are predictive of the development of food allergy in hypersensitive patients. METHODS IgE specific for Phl p 12, the grass pollen profilin, were measured in 37 subjects monosensitized to profilin with (n = 11) or without (n = 26) oral allergy syndrome (OAS) following the ingestion of plant-derived foods. RESULTS Patients without a history of OAS showed higher levels of IgE specific for Phl p 12 than patients with OAS (median 4.74 [range 0.7-41.6] KU/L vs 2.14 [range 0.32-10.2] KU/L, respectively) although the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.07). CONCLUSION Factors causing the onset of OAS in profilin-hypersensitive patients remain presently unclear.