Analysis of cow's milk specific IgE positive patients in newborns

Lee, Gil Sang; Baek, Nam Kyung; Kim, Won Duck

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to research whether measurement of cow's milk specific IgE on the newborn would be helpful in the diagnosis of cow's milk allergy. We tried to find out the relation between cow's milk specific IgE and other allergy diseases by following up cases.
METHODS
We reviewed clinical features of 87 episodes in infants less than 4 weeks old who were positive in cow's milk specific IgE test. For the study group, history taking, physical examinations, elimination and cow's milk specific IgE tests were carried out. We investigated the connection among cow' milk specific IgE, allergic disease and family history in 40 of 87 patients we could follow up on.
RESULTS
The mean age of the study group was 17.2+/-5.4 days. The subjects were classified in four groups according into allergens : 87 milk allergy positive patients, 24 casein positive, 38 alpha-lactoalbumin positive, and 75 beta-lactoglobulin positive. The number of patients who had follow-ups for more than 6 months to was 40(45.9 percent). The patients whose parents had allergic disease numberred 10(25 percent). Fiften patients had allergic diseases, 4 had asthma and 11 atopic dermatitis. According to the follow-up study, there is a significant relation between casein positive patients and allergic disease. But there is no statistical and significant relation between cow's milk specific IgE and a family history of allergic disease.
CONCLUSION
For the newborn babies, elimination tests and cow's milk specific IgE tests can be useful in the diagnosis of IgE-mediated or mixed milk allergies.