Sensitization from chestnuts and bananas in patients with urticaria and anaphylaxis from contact with latex.

We present eight patients allergic to latex and fruit (chestnut and banana), seven of whom are women, and aged 17 to 42 years (mean 25 years). Four had family and five personal atopic histories. The total IgE varied from 41 to 520 Ku/L (mean 263). The symptoms followed ingestion of fruit (anaphylaxis) in four patients and contact with rubber (contact urticaria and anaphylaxis) in the other four. Skin prick test (SPT) with latex and radioallergosorbent test to latex were positive in all the patients. Histamine release (HR) to latex was carried out on six patients and was positive in three. In the six patients with symptoms after having eaten chestnuts the SPT was positive and specific IgE was detected in five of them. Histamine release to chestnuts was positive in three of the six patients tested and one of them (-SPT and + IgE) tolerated the fruit. Two out of five patients with symptomatic banana allergy had negative SPT with banana while the test was positive in one patient who tolerated this fruit, this being the only case with specific IgE to banana. Histamine release with banana was only positive in one case. The important correlation between SPT, RAST, and HR results to latex and chestnut together with the total inhibition of the chestnut RAST with a serum pool by preincubation with latex suggests cross-reactivity among these allergens.