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Case Report
 

Allergy to freshwater shrimp (Gammarus)
 

M. Fontán*, B. Añibarro**, I. Postigo***, J. Martínez***

* Unidad de Alergia Pediátrica. Complexo Hospitalario de Pontevedra. Hospital Provincial. Pontevedra. Spain
** Unidad de Alergia. Hospital Severo Ochoa. Leganés. Madrid. Spain
*** Departamento de Inmunología, Microbiología y Parasitología. Facultad de Farmacia. Universidad del País Vasco. Vitoria. Spain and Sweden Diagnostics (Spain) S.L. Barcelona. Spain

J Invest Allergol Clin Immunol 2005; Vol. 15(2): 150-152
 

 Abstract


Summary. We report three new cases of allergy to Gammarus, two of them involving cutaneous symptoms, and the third one with occupational asthma.
The results showed exposure to feed containing Gammarus shrimp to be the main cause of the allergic symptoms in the three patients.
In all cases the intervention of IgE was demonstrated, with the absence of crossreactions with other common allergenic arthropods.

Key words: Gammarus, freshwater shrimp, asthma, urticaria, tropomyosin