COMPARISON OF IMMUNE REACTIVITY PROFILES AGAINST VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL ALLERGENS BETWEEN ADULT PATIENTS WITH ATOPIC-DERMATITIS AND PATIENTSWITH ALLERGIC RESPIRATORY-DISEASES

To clarify the pathomechanisms underlying the involvement of different organs by atopic dermatitis (AD) and allergic respiratory disease (AR D), me compared the immune reactivities to various environmental aller gens between 46 adult patients who suffered only from AD but mere with out any history of ARD and 41 patients who had only ARD, using a RAST FEIA (radioallergosorbent test/fluoroenzyme immunoassay) and a scarifi cation patch test. We also studied 42 healthy adult subjects in a simi lar fashion. Total serum IgE antibody levels were found to be far high er in the AD group than in the ARD and healthy control group, and RAST revealed that the AD group was sensitized to far larger numbers of al lergens such as food mix, cereal mix, fungus mix and Candida albicans than were the other groups. The ARD group displayed a high incidence i n RAST, comparable to that of the AD group, only against Japanese ceda r and grass pollen mix antigen. However, the most remarkable differenc e in the immune reactivity profiles was that the AD group showed a uni quely higher RAST score and a lower incidence of positive patch test r eactions to C. albicans antigen than did the ARD group. The reactiviti es in the ARD group to C. albicans antigen did not differ from those i n the control group. Our present data suggest that a more pronounced s hift from Th1 to Th2 cells, reactive against various allergens, takes place in AD patients.