Abstract:

Objective To investigate the role of serum IgG4 and IgE in screening food intolerance in children with allergic dermatosis under 12 years old. Methods Total IgG4,total IgE,food intolerance specific IgG4（sIgG4） and specific IgE（sIgE） in 165 children with allergic dermatosis（patient group） and 88 healthy children（control group） were determined. The difference was compared among different types of allergic dermatosis,different ages and different onset times. Results The levels of serum total IgG4 and total IgE in patient group were higher than those in control group（P<0.05）. Serum total IgG4 and total IgE levels with different types of allergic dermatosis were higher than those in control group（P<0.05）,but there was no statistical significance for different types of allergic dermatosis（P>0.05）. The positive rate of serum sIgG4 in children with digestive symptoms（66.2%） was higher than that in children without digestive symptoms（47.7%,P=0.017）,but there was no statistical significance for sIgE positive rate between the 2 groups（35.1% and 36.4%,P=0.862）. The positive rate of serum sIgG4 in patient group（58.2%） was higher than that of serum sIgE（35.8%,P<0.01）. The positive rate of serum sIgG4 and sIgE were increased with age. The positive rate of sIgG4 in children with different ages was higher than that of sIgE,and there was statistical significance between 1-3 years old and 7-12 years old children（P=0.031,P=0.008）. The positive rates of sIgG4 for egg,mango/pineapple/peach,shrimp/crab/shell and fish were high. The positive rate of serum sIgE was higher than that of serum sIgG4 for onset <2 h（P<0.01）,which was lower than that of serum sIgG4 for onset ≥2 h（P<0.01）. Conclusions The positive rates of serum sIgG4 and sIgE increase with age. The determination of sIgG4 is prefer for children with chronic allergic dermatosis,and the determination of sIgE in children with acute onset is more valuable.

Key words: IgG4, IgE, Food intolerance, Allergic dermatosis, Child