Overview
- University of Virginia investigators detailed the case in JACI: In Practice, identifying a 47-year-old airline pilot who collapsed hours after eating a hamburger.
- He had suffered a similar delayed illness two weeks earlier after a late steak on a camping trip, with severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- The autopsy initially listed a sudden unexplained death, then the man's wife sought further testing that showed alpha-gal–specific IgE and tryptase exceeding 2,000 ng/mL.
- Authors warn that delayed, abdominal-predominant reactions can represent anaphylaxis and urge clinicians to consider alpha-gal testing in unexplained collapses or gastrointestinal crises.
- Exposure is tied largely to the Lone Star tick, whose range is expanding northward; CDC counts over 110,000 suspected cases since 2010 and some researchers estimate roughly 450,000 Americans affected.