Abstract
BackgroundShrimp and house dust mite (HDM) allergies are common in Canadians. Often, both of these allergies occur in the same patient. This may be due to homology of tropomyosin or other potentially shared proteins. The aim of our study was to assess the frequency of house dust mite sensitization in a shrimp allergic Canadian population.MethodsWe undertook a retrospective chart review of shrimp allergic patients at an outpatient allergy clinic in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Our primary endpoint was to assess for presence of HDM sensitization in this population. Patients were categorized into approximate quartiles. We assessed the severity of the shrimp reactions, correlated shrimp skin test size to HDM skin test size, and measured the proportion of patients with atopic symptoms.ResultsWe identified 95 shrimp allergic patients who were tested for house dust mite. 86 (90.5%) of these patients had a positive skin test to HDM. Patients with a shrimp skin test ≥5 mm were 5.31 times (95% CI, 1.55–18.14; p = 0.008) more likely to exhibit a dust mite skin test ≥5 mm than patients with a shrimp skin test <5 mm. The odds of a patient with a shrimp skin test between 10 and 18 mm having a larger HDM skin test were 3.93 times (95% CI 1.03–14.98, p = 0.045) the odds for a patient with a shrimp skin test size between 3 and 4 mm. We did not find a correlation between shrimp skin test size and shrimp reaction symptom grade (p = 0.301).ConclusionIn our Canadian patients, we found a large majority of shrimp allergic patients to be sensitized to HDM. We found that patients with a large skin test to shrimp were more likely to have a large skin test to HDM compared to those patients with a small skin test to shrimp. We did not find a correlation between shrimp skin test size and shrimp reaction symptom severity. Most of these patients had symptoms of rhinitis and/or asthma that may have been caused by house dust mite allergy.
Highlights
Shrimp and house dust mite (HDM) allergies are common in Canadians
We found the odds ratio of having a HDM test greater than 3 mm, with shrimp skin test size ≥5 mm versus
The data was further categorized into those patients with a HDM skin test size ≥5 mm and those
Summary
Shrimp and house dust mite (HDM) allergies are common in Canadians Often, both of these allergies occur in the same patient. The tropomyosin present in HDM and shrimp has shown cross reactivity [4, 13]. While both shrimp and HDM have tropomyosin, there is variable evidence on showing presence of an allergy to both in patients. There is evidence which questions tropomyosin as the allergen responsible for cross-reactivity with shellfish, and that other proteins may be a factor [14]. Tropomyosin has been shown to be responsible for cross reactivity between different crustacea, such as shrimp, crab and lobster, due to homology between the protein in these species [3, 5]
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