Ethylene oxide allergy in a dialysis center: prevalence in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis populations.

Chronic hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients in one dialysis center were examined for (EO)-related sensitization. Five of 56 (8.9%) HD patients and 0 of 30 PD patients skin tested with a conjugate of human serum albumin (HSA) and EO had positive skin prick tests. The sera of 13 of 107 (12.1%) HD patients including sera from 5 patients with negative skin tests were positive in an EO-HSA radioallergosorbent test (RAST). Sensitized patients in this population did not experience allergic-type reactions during hemodialysis. There were no positive EO-HSA RAST results which could be ascribed to PD. Non-specific cutaneous responsiveness of the renal failure patients was compared with that of normal adult subjects by the use of skin prick tests with codeine phosphate and histamine phosphate. A significantly reduced responsiveness is present in chronic renal failure patients which would be expected to lower the sensitivity of the diagnostic skin test by comparison with the RAST.