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Skin tests and atopic allergy in children
Author(s) -
SMITH JOHN MORRISON
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
clinical and experimental allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.462
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2222
pISSN - 0954-7894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1973.tb01333.x
Subject(s) - asthma , allergy , medicine , pediatrics , food allergy , mite , disease , house dust mite , dermatology , immunology , allergen , biology , pathology , botany
Summary The onset of asthma has been found to follow a similar pattern in boys and girls. Eczema is associated with early onset of asthma, with frequent positive skin reactions and with a history of food allergy. Wealing reactions to inhalant allergens are commoner in later childhood and are more often large, exceeding 5 mm in diameter, in children over 5 than in those under 5. Skin reactions to foods are also more common in older children but large reactions to foods show less tendency to be commoner over the age of 5. Children born in tropical countries had less atopic disease than children of similar race born in England or than English children. Although asthmatic children, wherever they were born, frequently gave positive skin reactions to mite extracts it is possible that the total ‘allergic bombardment’ to which children are exposed in England is greater than it is in tropical countries and that this may explain the difference in prevalence of atopic disease which is not explainable on genetic grounds.