SUMMARY
SUMMARY OF:
PREVALENCE OF TYPE I ALLERGY TO NATURAL RUBBER LATEX AND TYPE IV ALLERGY TO LATEX AND
RUBBER ADDITIVES IN OPERATING ROOM STAFF WITH GLOVE-RELATED SYMPTOMS
By: Sara Miri, M.D. Zahra Pourpak, M.D., Ph.D., Alam Zarinara, M.D., Marzieh Heidarzade, M.D., Anoushirvan
Kazemnejad, Ph.D., Gholamali Kardar, Ph.D., Alireza Firooz, M.D., Athar Moin, Ph.D.
BACKGROUND
Healthcare workers are in daily contact with latex products and an increment of latex-related symptoms, despite a decrease
on latex allergy after the decrease of powdered gloves usage. This article covers the prevalence of latex allergy type I and
type IV in OR workers with glove related symptoms in 13 general hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical
sciences.
OVERVIEW
Irritant contact dermatitis is the most frequent reaction to latex, even though the most serious reaction is Type I latex allergy.
Type IV allergic contact dermatitis occurs more frequently than type I reaction.
RESULTS
512 OR workers from 25 operating rooms in 13 hospitals were evaluated between 2001 and 2003.11.5% (59/512) reported
glove-related symptoms. Of these, 48 people agreed to be tested for patch test, 25% (12/48) showed positive reaction to
latex and 27.1% (13/48) showed positive reaction to rubber additive. The most positive rubber additive is tetramethylthiuram
monosulfide that showed a 38.5% reaction, followed by diphenylguanidine (DPG), with 15.4% of the positive patch test
reacting to this competent.
CONCLUSION
There is a high prevalence of both latex allergy type I and Type IV. These 2 allergies coexists and this should be considered
for high risk groups such as HCWs.
References 1. Miri et al., Prevalence of type I allergy to natural rubber latex and type IV allergy to latex and rubber additives in operating room staff with
glove-related symptoms. Allergy Asthma Proc 28:557–563, 2007
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