Asthma, Rhinitis, Other Respiratory DiseasesDecreased prevalence of sensitization to cats with high exposure to cat allergen☆
Section snippets
Methods
A detailed description of the screening and recruitment is given elsewhere.5, 6 Briefly, all pregnant women and their partners attending an antenatal “booking” clinic were asked to complete a questionnaire requesting basic demographic data and a history regarding atopic disorders, pet ownership, and smoking habits. Skin prick testing was carried out through use of the extracts of 4 common inhalant allergens (Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus , cat, dog, and mixed grasses) with a negative control
Results
The full set of data was available for 2254 participants (mean age, 31.8 years; age range, 18-58 years); 449 of the participants had 1 or more cats in the home. Although cat ownership was associated with higher Fel d 1 levels, 48 of 702 participants in the lowest exposure group (<0.05 μg/g) owned a cat, whereas 22 of 150 subjects in the highest exposure group (>151 μg/g) did not own a cat. The κ coefficient revealed no dependence between the allergic conditions for women and their partners,
Discussion
The results of the current study suggest that the maximum prevalence of specific sensitization to cat occurs with moderate exposure. It must be emphasized that the measurement of current exposure in this study was used as a surrogate for the cumulative exposure. Although the possibility of selection bias cannot be excluded (eg, atopic women might be more interested and more likely to agree to be skin-tested; allergic patients might be more likely to allow a home visit), we believe that this did
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Reprint requests: Adnan Custovic, MD, PhD, North West Lung Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Road, Manchester M23 9LT, United Kingdom.