Role of IgE in anaphylactoid reactions during anaesthesia.

As diagnostic methods of detecting drug-specific IgE antibodies become more sophisticated, the evidence implicating specific IgE in anaesthetic allergy has increased. To implicate IgE in reactions, a history resembling anaphylaxis, the demonstration of drug-specific histamine release by intradermal testing and the demonstration of specific antibodies are necessary. Such evidence is seen in 70% of muscle relaxant reactors. Basophil histamine release studies suggest that histamine release is allergen-induced, not direct, and the final evidence necessary is to demonstrate the role of drug-specific antibodies in such histamine release.