Pediatr Allergy Respir Dis.  2010 Dec;20(4):297-301.

A Case of Barley Anaphylaxis due to Infant's Weaning Food

• Lee J
• Koo NH
• Kim EJ
• Lee SY

Abstract

Barley is not a rare dietary content in Asian food but very few cases of anaphylactic reactions to barley have been reported. Furthermore, most reports are in adult patients with allergic reactions to beer containing barley components or occupational asthmatics known as 'baker's asthma'. We present a case of 11-month old boy who experienced an episode of anaphylaxis with generalized urticaria, periorbital swelling, wheeze and dyspnea after eating baby food containing barley, chestnut, glutinous rice, nonglutinous rice, within 30 minutes. Laboratory tests demonstrated high total serum IgE (531 kU/L) and revealed high level of IgE sensitizations to wheat (64.3 kU/L), barley (35.2 kU/L), rice (1.39 kU/L). Using the IgE-immunoblot assay, 7, 14, 25, and 26 kDa of IgE binding bands were identified and high degree of IgE cross-reactivity between barley and wheat extracts were revealed using IgE-immunoblot inhibition and ELISA-inhibition tests in this case.

Keyword

Barley; Anaphylaxis; Infant's weaning food

MeSH Terms

Adult
Anaphylaxis
Asian Continental Ancestry Group
Beer
Dyspnea
Eating
Hordeum
Humans
Hypersensitivity
Immunoglobulin E
Triticum
Urticaria
Weaning
Immunoglobulin E