Egg Allergy in Jeddah City – Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Egg is a major part of daily food. Egg hypersensitivity (EH) is a common problem. It’s mainly due to IgE mediated type I hypersensitivity reaction. Objective: to determine which clinical allergic diseases are associated more with EH. Methods: This paper was performed on 143 patients during 2021 in Jeddah city. Only positive RAST sIgEs results to egg white or yellow were included. RAST results were taken from patient files retrospectively. Additionally, the associated allergic diseases were taken. RAST machine used was from Mediwiss German company which is an ELISA system. Results were collected in an Excel sheet. RAST results were correlated to clinical symptoms. Four tables were extracted. Results: EH in adults in Jeddah is more common in males 85 (59.4%) than females 56 (39%), and more common in white egg 54 (37.8%) than yellow egg 28 (19.5%). Additionally, EH in Jeddah city is commonest in age of thirties, 40 (28%) and adulthood, 31 (21.7%). Most common allergic diseases which are associated with EH are: allergic rhinosinusitis, atopic dermatitis, asthma and food allergy respectively. EH class is mostly of mild severity. Conclusions: EH in Jeddah city has several characteristics. It’s more common in adults (especially males) in the age period between 20-40 years, and more common to white than yellow egg. Common allergic diseases associated with EH are allergic rhinosinusitis, atopic dermatitis, asthma and food allergy respectively. EH severity is mostly of mild class; however, this must be correlated with the clinical findings. Key words: egg white allergy, egg white sensitization, asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis