Abstract
There are few studies addressing the longitudinal analysis of serum IgE levels and its impact to the development of atopic diseases in early childhood. We investigated 170 children who regularly followed up at our clinic for 4 years in a birth cohort study with at least 3 time-points of serum samples. The pattern of total serum IgE levels from 6 months to 4 years of age was clustered using K-means method in R software. Specific immunoglobulin E antibodies against food (egg white and milk) and inhalant allergens (D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae) were measured at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 4 years of age. By using K-means clustering, the dynamic changes in serum IgE levels was significantly stratified into 3 clusters (cluster A, < 100 kU/L, n = 106; cluster B, 100–200 kU/L, n = 35; cluster C, ≥ 200 kU/L, n = 29). A persistent total IgE levels higher than 100 kU/L appeared to be associated with higher prevalence of sensitization to food but not mite. However, a persistent IgE levels higher than 200 kU/L was not only remarkably related to increased prevalence of mite sensitization, but also risk of eczema at age 1 and allergic rhinitis and asthma at age 2, 3 and 4. In conclusion, a persistent total serum IgE level ≥ 200 kU/L since infancy is strongly associated with the presence of food and mite sensitization, as well as the development of eczema in infants, and rhinitis and asthma later in early childhood.
Highlights
There are few studies addressing the longitudinal analysis of serum Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels and its impact to the development of atopic diseases in early childhood
The demographic characteristics of enrolled subjects, total serum IgE levels, and the diagnosis of atopic disease from 6 months to age 4 are summarized in Supplementary File S1
After adjusting confounding factors, compared with serum IgE level < 100 kU/L in cluster A, higher serum IgE levels (≥ 200 kU/L) in cluster C appeared to show a significantly increased risk of allergic rhinitis [odds ratio (OR), 9.09; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.20–37.53; P = 0.002] and asthma (OR, 5.94; 95% CI, 1.89–18.69; P = 0.002) at the age of 4 years
Summary
There are few studies addressing the longitudinal analysis of serum IgE levels and its impact to the development of atopic diseases in early childhood. A persistent total serum IgE level ≥ 200 kU/L since infancy is strongly associated with the presence of food and mite sensitization, as well as the development of eczema in infants, and rhinitis and asthma later in early childhood. Elevated total serum IgE indicates high possibility of the presence of atopic diseases in children with allergy-like symptoms. The longitudinal trends of total serum IgE levels and their association with allergen sensitization and atopic diseases during early childhood are still lacking. The dynamic changes of total serum IgE levels were analyzed and their relevance to the presence of allergen sensitizations and risk for atopic diseases was examined
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