Clinical and immunological characteristics of sensitization to tropomyosins

Tropomyosins are a family of allergenic proteins found in large quantities in all invertebrates. Tropomyosins sensitization causes a life-threatening allergic reaction up to anaphylaxis after eating seafood. Identifying the source of primary sensitization is important to predict the allergic reaction severity. This article describes a clinical case of chronic recurrent urticaria in an 8-year-old boy with tropomyosins sensitization.

An 8-year-old boy was diagnosed with the following: controlled atopic phenotype bronchial asthma, food allergy (oral allergy syndrome), and chronic recurrent spontaneous urticaria. Component diagnostics revealed IgE-aB to tropomyosins in high concentrations from 38.79 to 43.38 kUA/l and cat and dog uteroglobin and lipocalins in high concentrations from 7.79 to 43.38 kUA/l.

It is necessary to specify the primary sensitizer to analyze the clinical significance of allergens that provoke sensitization to various groups of allergens. In this case, sensitization to tropomyosins is most likely described as caused by either a helminthic invasion or midge bites. Therefore, food allergic reactions to tropomyosins caused from crustaceans were not observed.