• J. Clin. Pathol. · Jul 2014

    Systemic reactions and anaphylaxis with an acute serum tryptase ≥14 μg/L: retrospective characterisation of aetiology, severity and adherence to National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for serial tryptase measurements and specialist referral.

    • Sapna Srivastava, Aarnoud P Huissoon, Victoria Barrett, Scott Hackett, Susan Dorrian, Matthew W Cooke, and Mamidipudi T Krishna.
    • Department of Immunology, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.
    • J. Clin. Pathol. 2014 Jul 1;67(7):614-9.

    AimsTo characterise patients with systemic reactions and anaphylaxis with an acute serum tryptase of ≥14 μg/L against recently published World Allergy Organisation (WAO) diagnostic criteria. To also perform a clinical audit to assess adherence to National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline recommendations regarding serial tryptase measurements and specialist referral.MethodsA systematic retrospective survey (2006-2010) was carried out (n=171; males=86; mean age±SD 48±20 years) and data were extracted from emergency department and specialist allergy clinic records.Results34 patients (20%) had a grade 1 reaction, 61 (36%) grade 2, 46 (27%) grade 3 and 6 patients (4%) grade 4 (24 patients (13%) could not be graded due to lack of adequate clinical details) and 6% developed a biphasic response. Serial tryptase measurements were not available in 117 (69%) of the cohort. 97 (57%) patients were referred for specialist assessment, and 72 (74%) attended. 50% of cases were diagnosed with idiopathic systemic reactions/anaphylaxis and 28%, 14% and 8% triggered by drugs, foods and other allergies including disorders of mast cell overload, respectively. A weak positive correlation was detected between acute serum tryptase and severity.ConclusionsThe correlation between acute serum tryptase and severity of anaphylaxis/systemic reactions is weak. A significant proportion of patients with raised acute serum tryptase had mild reactions which did not meet WAO criteria for anaphylaxis and this may reduce the specificity of the test. The commonest aetiology in this cohort was idiopathic followed by drug and food allergies. NICE guidelines relating to serial tryptase measurements and specialist referral were not followed, and there is an urgent need to raise the awareness among clinicians involved in the management of anaphylaxis.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…