[A case of immediate allergy to anisakis following saury intake]

Arerugi. 2006 Nov;55(11):1429-32.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

We report here a 76-year-old male that presented with an immediate allergy to Anisakis following saury intake. Three and a half hours after eating pressed saury sushi, whole-body pomphus appeared including itching, facial dropsical swelling, and dyspnea. Diagnostic tests revealed specific IgE antibodies against anisakis simplex and a skin prick test was positive using an extraction of anisakis simplex. The results of skin prick tests using the body and internal organs of a saury were negative. Based on these results, we diagnosed the case as immediate allergy to Anisakis. Anisakis is parasitic to a diverse array of fish, and it seems rare that eating saury will induce an allergic response because the reported parasitic rate of Anisakis on saury is only 5%. In addition, as tropomyosin is currently considered to be the primary cause of allergies to Anisakis, renewed attention should be paid to other foods for which tropomyosin is also assumed to be a common antigen.

Publication types

  • Case Reports
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Animals
  • Anisakis / immunology*
  • Fishes / parasitology*
  • Humans
  • Hypersensitivity, Immediate / etiology*
  • Male