Late onset reactions in humans: correlation between skin and bronchial reactivity.

We carried out sequential measurements of the intensity of simultaneously occurring late onset skin and bronchial reactivity in seven atopic subjects following skin and inhalation challenge with pollen antigen. All subjects demonstrated dual bronchial and cutaneous reactions. Although the intensity of the late onset bronchial responses correlated temporally and quantitatively with the degree of increase in serum neutrophil chemotactic activity, the intensity of the late onset skin responses correlated with the level of specific antigen-IgE in the serum. This suggests that even in the same subjects, different factors govern the intensity of late onset skin and bronchial responses.