Imported fire ant XXXX in young @entity1 : skin reactivity and serum IgE antibodies to venom and whole body extract.

@entity1 @entity39874 @entity566 @entity56 @entity15173
We studied 19 young @entity1 (aged 15 to 39 months) who had had a @entity56 after imported fire ant (IFA) sting. Skin testing was performed with whole body extract (WBE) of both @entity39874 species; positive reactions to @entity15173 was noted in 94% and to @entity39874 in 100%. Serum was tested for total IgE level and for specific IgE antibodies by RAST with WBE and venom (V) of @entity15173 . In vitro results were compared with those of 19 age and sex-matched atopic control subjects. The range of total serum IgE level was 31 to 1720 IU/ml (geometric mean 160 IU/ml), compared with 7.5 to 6756 IU/ml (geometric mean 85 IU/ml) in the control subjects. The difference between the two groups, however, was not statistically significant (p greater than 0.05). In the IFA- @entity56 group, the IFA WBE RAST mean binding was 13.5% (range 2.0% to 30.2%), and the IFA V RAST mean was 29.2% (range 7.8% to 46.7%). The control sera demonstrated low levels of activity to both IFA WBE RAST (0.7% to 4.8%) and IFA V RAST (0.7% to 5.9%). IFA WBE RAST demonstrated that 26% of the IFA- @entity56 @entity1 had counts within the range of the atopic control subjects. In contrast, the IFA V RAST clearly separated all IFA- @entity56 @entity1 from their age and sex-matched atopic control subjects. A scoring system for IFA V RAST is proposed. These results demonstrate superiority of IFA V over IFA WBE RAST in the diagnosis of @entity566 to @entity15173 .
