Absorption of egg antigens by the gut observed by oral Prausnitz-Küstner (Walzer) reaction in atopic dermatitis.

Sera from 50 children (27 boys and 23 girls, under the age of 3 years) with atopic dermatitis allergic or not to hen's egg shown by skin test or radioallergosorbent test (RAST) were passively transferred to recipients which were then challenged with injection of egg antigen (Prausnitz-Küstner (P-K) test) or with ingestion of a raw egg (oral P-K test). Thirty-one patients showed positive P-K reaction with serum titers from 2 to 8,192. Fifteen of the P-K positive cases were also positive in the oral P-K test with titers from 2 to 256. The ratio of the oral P-K titer and the P-K titer in each positive case was from 1:2 to 1:32. The results indicate that a high percentage of atopic dermatitis patients with egg allergy have IgE antibody in the serum capable of reacting with an ingested egg.