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.