Poster Discussion Session PDS

[[abstract]]Background: The longitudinal trajectory of allergen-specic IgE levels from the prenatal stage to early life has remained largely unexplored. Method: One hundred and three motherinfant pairs that were part of an ongoing population-based prospective birth cohort study of early childhood allergic diseases were included in this study. We examined the relationship of 20 allergen-specic IgE levels (including: D. pteronyssinus, D. farinae, Blomia tropicalis, cat dander, dog dander, German cockroach, Bermuda grass, Timothy grass, ragweed, Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, egg white, milk, codsh, wheat, peanut, soybean, almond, crab and shrimp) with blood samples of mothers, cord blood and infants at 12 months of age using the McNemar test. Results: A signicant level of agreement was observed for most examined allergenspecic IgE levels in blood samples of mothers, cord blood and infants at 12 months of age. When we further examined the association between allergic related risk factors and atopic disease in infants at the rst year of life, we found that there was positive association between colic pains at night and atopy in infants at 12 months of age (adjusted odds ratios (AOR) = 3.51; 95% condence interval: 1.13 – 10.96; P = 0.03). Conclusion: Together, the ndings from this study suggest that the inuence of maternal allergen-specic IgE levels on infant immune response might occur at birth and then wane in infants at 12 months of age, and provide supportive evidence for the ‘Allergy March’ theory of allergy development in an Asian study sample