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Food most common cause of skin prick test reactions

Researchers observed that food is a major cause of systemic reactions in patients receiving skin prick tests.

Nuts, including peanut and Brazil nut, posed the highest risk for systemic reactions, according to the researchers.

Priya Sellaturay, MRCP, a specialist registrar in the department of allergy at Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study to assess the rate of systemic reactions and their associations after skin prick testing (SPT).

The analysis included an estimated 31,000 patients who underwent SPT at Addenbrooke’s Teaching Hospital between 2007 and 2013. Twenty-four patients had systemic reactions, resulting in a 0.077% rate of systemic reactions to SPT.

Food caused 75% of the systemic reactions to SPT, with nuts accounting for 61% of those reactions. The most common reactive foods included peanut (n = 6), Brazil nut (n = 3) and cow’s milk (n = 2).

One severe reaction to a drug SPT occurred in a nurse who splashed Tazocin (piperacillin/tazobactam, Pfizer) on her skin. She developed rhinoconjunctivitis, wheeze, dyspnea and tachycardia within minutes of exposure.

The researchers treated reactions immediately, and no reaction required further hospitalization.

“Precautions should be taken in patients with a history of severe reactions and possible diluted concentrations of drugs should be considered for SPT in similar patients,” the researchers wrote. – by Ryan McDonald

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.