Allergy Asthma Respir Dis.  2024 Apr;12(2):72-77. 10.4168/aard.2024.12.2.72.

White meat fish allergy in Korean children: A single hospital based retrospective study

• Youm S
• Gantulga P
• Park GM
• Jeong K
• Lee S

• KMID: 2555657
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4168/aard.2024.12.2.72

Abstract

Purpose
Fish allergy is rare in children, and there have been few studies on childhood fish allergy. This study aims to investigate the clinical characteristics and laboratory findings of white meat fish (WMF) allergy in Korean children.
Methods
In this study, we enrolled 150 children with a history of WMF consumption who underwent serum specific immunoglobulin E to cod (cod-sIgE) at Ajou University Hospital from January 2019 to December 2022. The demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, history of consuming 6 major Korean WMF (cod, cutlass, yellow croaker, brown sole, olive flounder, and anchovy), and cod-sIgE were investigated.
Results
Sixty-five subjects (43.3%) had clinical responses to at least 1 of the 6 WMF (WMF-allergic), and 85 subjects had no allergic reaction to all 6 WMF (WMF-tolerant). The median age of first symptom onset in the WMF-allergic group was 15 months. Major causative WMF were yellow croaker (30.6%), cutlass (28.7%), cod (26.1%), brown sole (20.4%), anchovy (14.7%), and olive flounder (6.5%). Twenty-three of 65 WMF-allergic children (35.4%) had anaphylaxis. The median level of cod-sIgE was 4.61 kU_A/L (range, 0.04–100.10 kU_A/L) in the WMF-allergic group, and this value was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than that of the WMF-tolerant group (0.04 kU_A/L; range, 0.04–3.08 kU_A/L). The positive rates ( ≥ class 2, 0.7 kU_A/L) of cod-sIgE for the 6 individual WMF ranged from 69% to 90%.
Conclusion
We propose that WMF allergy can develop in young children, with 35.4% experiencing anaphylaxis. Cod-sIgE is considered a useful tool for diagnosing not only cod allergy but also other WMF allergy in children.

Keyword

Food allergy; Fish protein; Anaphylaxis; Specific IgE; Child