ALLERGY TO ANIMAL INTEGUMENT - NATURAL-HI STORY AND FREQUENCY OF LATENT ASSOCIATIONS

Objectives: To assess the frequency of the responsibility of various f urry animal species in hypersensitivity reactions and to detect the pr esence of sensitizations to other animal species in patients affected. Methods: Prospective study comprising a systematic clinical interview followed by skin tests with a series of animal squames. One hundred a nd seven consecutive patients seen in the outpatients department over a period of 12 months and complaining of allergy in contact with an an imal were studied. Results: The animals incriminated were cats in 88 c ases, dogs in 51 cases, horses in 31 cases, rabbits in 12 cases, and h amsters, mice and bird, in 3 cases each. Sixty six patients described multiple allergy, which occurred at a brief interval in 22 of them. Re gular animal contact before the age of one year was reported by 36 pat ients. The skin test was negative for at least one of the animals resp onsible for clinical signs in 45 patients. It was also positive in ano ther 49 patients for an animal which had never previously induced any pathological manifestations. Conclusion: Cats are the animals most fre quently responsible. However, almost one out of two allergic patients has a negative skin test in relation to the animal(s) incriminated. A similar proportion of these allergic patients are sensitized to anothe r animal. These data suggest the need to improve the quality of certai n allergenic extracts and to extend the range of investigation by skin tests in these patients.