Studies of Hypersensitivity to Fish

Abstract

In 61 children with asthma and/or urticaria due to fish allergy 2 or more species of fish had been tried in the diet. Thirty-four reacted to all fish tried, whilst 27 showed allergologic differentiation between various fish species. Studies of species differentiation were undertaken with the use of direct skin testing, passive transfer experiments and in vivo passive transfer neutralization experiments and with simultaneous species differentiation immunodiffusion experiments. The studies indicated the presence of different species specific antigens in fish that may act as species specific allergens in a number of fish hypersensitive individuals whilst other patients probably react to common or closely related allergens present in extracts from different species.