Domingo Barber

Fabienne Gay-Crosier

Jacques Bienvenu

Clinical and Translational Allergy

PubMed

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POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access
Allergy diagnosis in Geneva area: a complex
multi-ethnic community with high pan-allergen
prevalence
Fabienne Gay-Crosier1*, Domingo Barber2, Jacques Bienvenu3
From 5th International Symposium on Molecular Allergology (ISMA 2013)
Vienna, Austria. 6-7 December 2013
Background
Epidemiological studies are of great importance to
understand the relevant allergens for a given population.
Geneva is situated in Central Europe, and patients
attending to allergy office are of diverse ethnic origin.
We aimed to analyze sensitization profiles and evaluate
a previously perceived high prevalence of pan-allergen
sensitization in our population.
Methods
Seventy patients with seasonal allergy symptoms were con-
secutively included over a one month period following
clinical practice and classified in three groups: Western/
Central/East Europe (30), South Europe (21), Asia/Africa/
South America (19). Routine SPT panel including SPT of
purified palm tree pollen profilin, ISAC-CAP microarray
and a careful clinical evaluation was performed.
Results
13/30, 13/21 and 6/19 were sensitized to profilin, while
14/30, 11/21 and 5/19 were positive to Bet v 1. 40% of
profilin positive patients had clinical food allergy with
melon or water melon. ISAC profilin results were com-
pared at different cut-off levels with SPT to pure profilin.
11 patients were serologically profilin positive between
0.01 and 0.29 ISU ; 7 of them were SPT profilin positive
and 4 of them had oral symptoms induced by melon.
Discussion
In Areas with a high pan-allergen sensitization prevalence,
the use of CRD is unavoidable. Multiplexed platforms like
ISAC CAP arrays have become for us a routine diagnosis
tool. All studied groups showed a high prevalence of profi-
lin and PR10 resulting in complex food related allergy.
The analysis of the ISAC results with the recommended
current cut-off values might not be adequate. Profilin is
present in all vegetables, and thus is ingested or inhaled in
a daily-seasonal basis. Perhaps the relative high sIgG4 to
profilin can interfere ISAC result. As described previously,
profilin seems to be connected to grass allergy. All patients
but one in this study were grass sensitized (Phl p 1 and or
Phl p 5 positive). Grass pollen counts in Geneva are in the
range of 100 to 1000 grains/m3. A similar grass exposure
related to high profilin prevalence has been described in
western Spain, making us think that this is not an isolated
phenomenon and that exposure and cofactors conditions
are very region dependent. Taking all this into account
confirms the absolute need for a suitable use of micro-
arrays technology in daily practice in order to be able to
perform individually adapted successful treatments.
Authors’ details
1Clinical Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Internal Medicine FMH, Carouge,
Geneva, Switzerland. 2Universidad San Pablo CEU, IMMA-Facultad de
Medicina, Madrid, Spain. 3Centre hospitalier Lyon-Sud, Laboratoire
d’immunologie, Lyon, France.
Published: 17 March 2014
doi:10.1186/2045-7022-4-S2-P49
Cite this article as: Gay-Crosier et al.: Allergy diagnosis in Geneva area: a
complex multi-ethnic community with high pan-allergen prevalence.
Clinical and Translational Allergy 2014 4(Suppl 2):P49.
1Clinical Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Internal Medicine FMH, Carouge,
Geneva, Switzerland
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Gay-Crosier et al. Clinical and Translational Allergy 2014, 4(Suppl 2):P49
http://www.ctajournal.com/content/4/S2/P49
© 2014 Gay-Crosier et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.


Allergy diagnosis in Geneva area: a complex multi-ethnic community with high pan-allergen prevalence

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Allergy diagnosis in Geneva area: a complex multi-ethnic community with high pan-allergen prevalence

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