A case of mosquito hypersensitivity showing abnormality of peripheral monocyte function

We report here an 11-year-old, Japanese girl with an ulcer-forming type of mosquito hypersensitivity. Since the lesions might have arisen from an Arthus type of hypersensitivity, we used a phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)-triggered chemiluminescence method to investigate the function of her peripheral monocytes, which should play an important role in any Arthus reaction in association with polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNs). The chemiluminescence of the patient's monocytes was significantly reduced from that of the normal control. To our best knowledge, no such functional abnormality of the monocytes has been seen previously in patients with an ulcer-forming type of mosquito hypersensitivity.