Alpha-gal syndrome. Allergy to red meat and gelatin.
Alpha-gal syndrome is a potentially severe food allergy caused by the presence of alpha-gal-specific IgE. The aim of this study is to describe our series of 13 patients. This work is a retrospective study of patients diagnosed in 2016 and 2017. Skin tests were performed with commercial extract and gelaspan as well as specific IgE determination for alpha-gal and different types of meat. Thirteen patients diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome were analyzed; 9 of them had anaphylaxis, 6 of whom had been diagnosed with idiopathic anaphylaxis. All had a positive skin test with gelaspan, though this was not true with the commercial extracts, whose results were less conclusive. We believe that a diagnosis of idiopathic anaphylaxis may prevent the identification of patients with alpha-gal syndrome. The gelaspan skin test is more useful than commercial extracts.