[Constitutional differences in the risk of hypersensitivity to cats in children]

Several risk factors for allergy to cats were studied in children and teenagers who had respiratory symptoms possibly of allergic origin and were chronically exposed to a cat. It appears that: atopic dermatitis significantly increases the risk, independently of the other parameters examined; a family history of presumed allergic respiratory disease without atopic dermatitis significantly increases the risk in boys carrying the rhesus phenotype cc; passive smoking significantly increases the risk for allergy to cats in rhesus CC antigen-bearing subjects, independently of all other parameters (family history or atopic dermatitis). These factors aggravating risk, which can easily be determined by each physician, may prove useful, once personalized, in strengthening the general recommendations given to parents but routinely disregarded due to the lack of readily identifiable constitutional markers to establish the undeniable risk of hypersensitivity to cats.