Relevance of allergens from cats and dogs to asthma in the northernmost province of Sweden: Schools as a major site of exposure☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Study populations
The children studied here were participants in a longitudinal study of all the students from the 3 municipalities of Kiruna, Luleå, and Piteå who were enrolled in grades 1 and 2 (ages, 7 and 8 years) in 1996. Of the children invited, 3431 (97%) participated in the study.2 The schools investigated were those in Kiruna and Luleå. Located inland, Kiruna is a 20,000 square kilometer town of 26,000 inhabitants (as of 1996) 200 km north of the Arctic Circle (latitude, 68° north). The average yearly
RESULTS
Serum IgE antibody assays confirmed that there was a high degree of sensitization to cat, dog, and birch allergens in Northern Sweden (Table I).In contrast, sensitization to dust mite, cockroach, Alternaria spp, and Aspergillus spp was much less common. There was a significant association with asthma for sensitization to animal dander and birch allergens. Among this cohort, the presence of a cat at home has not been found to be a risk factor for either asthma or positive skin test responses to
DISCUSSION
The assays for serum IgE reported here have confirmed that the symptomatic children in Norrbotten were primarily sensitized to cat, dog, and birch allergens. The complete absence of dust mite allergen in schools and houses is in keeping with the results for sensitization and presumably reflects the very low humidity. As expected from visual reports, very little cockroach allergen was detected, and IgE antibodies to Blatella germanica were present in only 3% of the sera. The negative results for
Acknowledgements
We thank the staff and school boards in Kiruna and Luleå, Sweden, and Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia; Lena Gustafsson and Kerstin Kemi-Björnström for their assistance with dust collection; and Pharmacia for providing CAP reagents.
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2018, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :Within these studies, dog and cat allergen levels have been found to vary widely, with higher levels in carpeted and upholstered areas.12,33,35 In addition, studies have found that cat and dog allergen levels are higher in schools than in homes where no pets are present, and levels have been found to exceed threshold value associated with sensitization.11,32,33,36 Past SICASs have found that cat and dog allergens were commonly detected in schools, but the absolute levels were relatively low and below the levels associated with asthma symptoms.10,15,23
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Supported by National Institutes of Health grants AI-20565, AI-34607, and the Swedish Asthma-Allergy Foundation.
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Reprint requests: Thomas A. E. Platts-Mills, MD, PhD, UVa Asthma and Allergic Disease Center, Box 225, Health Science Center, Charlottesville, VA 22908.
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0091-6749/99 $8.00 + 0 1/1/97965