THE RELATIONSHIP OF
TUBERCULIN RESPONSES AND ATOPIC DISORDER IN CHINESE CHILDREN
Wong
GWK1, Tam CM3, Leung TF1,
Fok TF1, Chanyeung M4, Lai CKW2
Departments
of 1 Paediatrics and 2 Medicine & Therapeutics,
Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong 3 Chest
Services Central Office, Department of Health 4 Department of
Medicine, University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, China
Objective:
Recent epidemiological and animal studies suggested that BCG
vaccination might be beneficial in reducing subsequent development of
atopy. The aim of the present
study is to investigate the relationship between asthma, allergic symptoms,
atopy, and tuberculin response in Chinese schoolchildren who received BCG
vaccination at birth.
Methods: In this
study, a total of 3110 ten year-old schoolchildren were recruited for the
Hong Kong arm of the Phase II International Study of Asthma and Allergies
in Childhood. Among the 2599
children born in Hong Kong and vaccinated with BCG after birth, 2201 had
tuberculin testing at a mean �� SD age of 8.4��1.4 years. A random
sub-sample of 980 children was also recruited for skin-prick test.
Results: The prevalence rates of asthma ever, wheeze ever, current wheeze,
current rhinoconjunctivitis and current flexural eczema were not significantly
different between tuberculin positive and negative subjects. The mean �� SEM tuberculin response was 3.4��0.2 mm in atopic subjects and 3.3��0.2 mm in nonatopic subjects.
The difference was not significant (P=0.9). Logistic
regression analyses did not reveal any significant relationship between
asthma ever, current wheeze, atopy, and positive tuberculin responses.
Conclusions: This study did not find any relationship between asthma, allergic
symptoms, atopy, and positive tuberculin reactivity in Chinese
schoolchildren who were vaccinated with BCG at birth.