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Published on: September 16, 2011
Unveiling heterogeneity in individual thresholds: validation using urinary prostaglandin D2 metabolite in food
Hisako Ogasawara1, Yusuke Inuzuka2, Kotaro Umezawa1
1Allergy Center, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan.
Background:
The prevalence of food allergies among children is on the rise, presenting with a spectrum of severity from mild cases to those resulting in anaphylaxis. Ensuring the safe progression of home-based food ingestion is essential in managing food allergy. While the oral food challenge (OFC) test ideally confirms the threshold and tolerated dose, past findings indicated that about 30% of children who passed peanut OFCs experienced peanut-related allergic reactions when introducing peanuts at home.
Objective:
It is presumed that the immune reactions occurring within individual patients vary in levels according to the situation. To date, no reports have objectively examined these conditions.
Material And Methods:
We present the symptoms and validation of an objective biomarker in eight pediatric cases during home introduction of food allergens. The urinary Prostaglandin D metabolite (PGDM) was measured as a noninvasive biomarker.
Results:
Some cases exhibited mild symptoms and elevated urinary PGDM levels during home introduction despite ingesting half the dose that confirmed as safe during OFC.
Conclusion:
It underscores the importance of considering individual variability in determining food allergy thresholds.

