Introduction: the eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) is a small polypeptide that originates from activated eosinophil granulocytes. In other studies, the human neutrophils from allergic pateitns were able to produce ECP by IgE-dependent mechanism. Eosinophils have been shown to contribute to T-lymphocyte activation and an increased inflammatory responses during allergic inflammation.
Objectives: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between allergic test; skin test and multiple allergosorbent test system (MAST); and ECP count.
Methods: A total of 975 patients who underwent skin test or MAST were included in this studies. We tested the serum ECP, total Ig E, eosinophil counts, datas of skin test, datas of MAST in all patients. Various parameters were compared to ECP using the Mann-Whitney U test. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze the relationship between variables and ECP in each datas.
Results: In total, 975 patients (578 men and 367 women) were included in our study. Regression analysis showed that ECP was significantly correlated with the asthma (r = 0.76, p =0.023), the score of MAST for Dermatophagoides farinae (r = 0.144, p = 0.000), the score of MAST for mite, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (r = 0.123, p = 0.000), and the score of skin test for Der.f (r = 0.171, p =0.032). There were no difference between the ECP and other datas significantly.
Conclusions: There might be positive relationship between the ECP and MAST for Dermatophagoides.