Transplanting A Nut Allergy

Gavinsblog writes "New Scientist is reporting that a man who received a liver transplant from a donor who died of anaphylactic shock, went on to develop a life-threatening nut allergy himself. The man had no history of a nut allergy suffered an anaphylactic reaction to a cashew nut 25 days after receiving the liver. Should the liver have read 'Warning: may contain traces of nut'?"

Comments

Nut allergies can be sudden and unexpected

[Blkdeath]

A friend of mine was recently in hospital for extreme bloating, cramping, shortness of breath, nausea, and all sorts of other uncomfortable symptoms. The cause? A nut allergy. He's been a nut lover for all his life (atleast 30-40 years' worth of adulthood, anyways), often sitting down to a beer and a can of nuts in the evening and never encountered a problem before. But now it's potentially life-threatening if he consumes even trace amounts of almost any nut.

And no, he hasn't had any major transplants or transfusions lately. It just... happened. The doctors have no idea, either, partially since it doesn't run in his family.

Re:Nut allergies on the rise

[Anonymous Coward]

They're getting more common, too. The number of notes posted at our kid's daycare are unbelievable. Nuts are one of the most dramatic, but some kids seem sensitized to *everything* (nuts, milk, wheat ....)

A lot of these allergies just go away with time. Others are adult-onset.

The article writer misstated the source of the allergy -- it wasn't that the liver has nut-based residue, but that it has traces of the donor's nut sensitivity.

Asthma

[Zog The Undeniable]

If you transplant the lungs of an asthmatic into another person, they will then have asthma for the rest of their life. My UK donor card doesn't have "lungs" ticked, for that reason.

Re:Nut allergies on the rise

[Martok7]

Nut allergies are one of the most common allergies. I have been deathly allergic to nuts all my life and have had 3 hospitalization incidents. From what I have learned children are increasingly becoming deathly allergic to them. Most food products now have to put a warning if the product is made with nuts or the machine that produces it also handles nuts. I feel bad for those kids, I am in my 30's and it sucks having to make sure everything you eat isn't made with or fried with nuts or nut oil. But this thread is somewhat humorous.

this seems to be quite common

[hughk]

There have been medical writeups since Roman times and crtainly quite detailed views of a persons health since the 17th Century or so. Essentially, little or no allergies untill the 1930s or so.

Nut allergies are even newer - and extremly life threatening. It is fascinating that in this case the IgA was transplanted with the liver, but how do all the other people become allergic????