Table 1.
Patient characterization.
| Birch | Grass | |||||||||
| Patients |
Age (range) |
Sex Male/Female |
Symptoms | Spt | IgE class Median(range) |
HR class Median(range) |
Symptoms | Spt | IgE class Median(range) |
HR class Median(range) |
| Healthy | 25 (22–43) |
3/7 | 0/10 | 0/10 | 0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0/10 | 0/10 | 0 (0) |
0 (0) |
| AS Birch | 25 (24–27) |
1/4 | 0/5 | 5/5 | 0 (0–2) |
2 (0–3) |
0/5 | 0/5 | 0 (0) |
0 (0) |
| AS Grass | 25 (22–31) |
1/4 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0/5 | 5/5 | 0 (0–2) |
0 (0–3) |
| Allergic Birch | 27 (25–43) |
4/1 | 5/5 | 5/5 | 3 (2–4) |
3 (2–3) |
2/5 | 2/5 | 0 (0–4) |
2 (0–3) |
| Allergic Grass | 26 (24–41) |
3/0 | 1/3 | 1/3 | 0 (0–3) |
0 (0–3) |
3/3 | 3/3 | 4 (2–4) |
3 (0–3) |
AS: asymptomatically sensitized. Spt: skin prick test. HR: histamine release
Skin prick tests (performed in duplicate) were considered positive when mean wheal diameter >3 mm. Allergic symptoms were reported in diary cards during the relevant pollen season. Symptoms were considered as pollen allergy when lasting > 7 days or when symptoms were repeatedly elicited when pollen counts exceeded a certain (individual) level [2]. The skin prick test was performed according to the guidelines of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology [18]. n = 10 for the healthy controls, n = 10 for the asymptomatically sensitized individuals and n = 8 for the allergic individuals.