There was recently an impression that pet allergy increased among children, therefore frequency of pet keeping in home with children and real conditions of children with pet allergy were investigated in 2000 and 2002.
The first study was a questionnaire about home with keeping pet, and there were 410 homes with pet among 1623 homes of the outpatient (the rate of keeping pet was 25.3%). The animal species were dog, cat, hamster, rabbit, little bird, guinea pig, squirrel and ferret, and dog occupied about a half of all pets. There were 469 persons who suspected allergy to pet in the 1521 homes of the outpatient, and the rate of suspected allergy to pet was 30.8%, and there was no significant difference between in the rates of group of the home with the pet and without the pet.
In the second study, 129 patients with pet allergy were studied. Age of the patients ranged from 10 month to 23 years old, and there were 69 males and 60 females. The patient over 12 years old occupied only 15% of all patients.
The patients were divided into 4 groups due to conditions with pet kept. The first group was 50 patients with pet in their home present (38.7%). The second group was 45 without pet in patient's home, but patient's grand parents kept pet in their home (34.9%).
The third was 15 patients in which had been kept pet in the past (11.6%), and the fourth was 19 patients had never kept (14.7%).
As allergic symptoms revealed by contact with offending pet, rhinoconjunctivitis was observed most frequently and next respiratory symptoms. In the first group, majority of dog was indoor in the home and beginning of the keeping dog was more often within 5 years. Cat in home of the grand parents was kept more frequently for a period of over 5 years long in the second group.
Serum IgE levels in each groups were significant higher than the level of non-atopic individual and the rate of positive specific IgE antibody to cat and dog were 81.5∼92.3% and 65.2∼80.0% respectively in contrast to the rate to mite was 73.3∼92.3%.
In the fourth group never kept pet, they were sensitized unnoticed and revealed symptoms to animal allergens, and this fact was thought very important for atopic individual.
Pet allergens became one of the most important allergens, therefore atopic individual might enhanced the risk of allergy.
This study showed that in the patient's home avoidance or removal of the pet was necessary, and atopic individual did not kept pet in his home and avoided to contact with pet to prevent the progression of sensitization process.

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We conducted a survey of childhood asthma management at the clinics and hospitals in Nara prefecture, using a questionnaire. The period of the survey was from June 1^st to July 31^st, 2004, and 468 patients completed the questionnaire (310 males, 155 females, 3 unknown). The median ages for enrollment at the clinic, the onset of asthma, and the first diagnosis of asthma were 6 (0.5-21), 2 (0-12), and 2 (0-14) years old, respectively. Asthma attacks were least frequent in the summer season. Deteriorating factors associated with asthma in their children were recognized by 90.7% of parents, and the most common factors were inhalation of house dust and catching a common cold. Among the patients, 64.7% had experienced hospitalization, 17.4% went to a clinic or hospital only when they had asthma attacks, and 82.6% received regular check-ups. Most of the patients took medication to prevent attacks, and most knew the names of the medicines and how to use them. 14.4% of the patients felt that the control of asthma was poor, and poor control of asthma disrupted both their life and their parents' lives. Consideration of approaches for improvement of the QOL of childhood asthma patients and their parents is of importance.

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Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate sensitizing allergens of children with allergic diseases in Japan.
Methods: Five hundred and eighty nine children with allergic diseases diagnosed by allergologists were enrolled in the study. Specific IgE antibodies to 35 allergens were measured in the sera from those children. The children were divided into 3 age groups (0-1y: n=105, 2-5y: n=214, 6-15y: n=270).
Results: In 0-1y group, egg and milk were the most frequent allergens followed by peanut and wheat. The frequency of positive specific IgE antibodies to peanut was higher comparing to previous reports. House dust mites and dog dander were the most frequent in inhalant allergens followed by cockroach. In 2-5y and 6-15y groups, the frequencies of positive specific IgE antibodies to inhalant allergens were higher than those of 0-1y group. However, the frequencies of egg, milk, fish and meats were lower. No difference of frequencies to grains, legumes and crustaceans were found among those 3 age groups. Although severity of atopic dermatitis affected sensitization rate with allergens, it is not shown in severity of bronchial asthma.
Conclusion: To select allergens to be measured specific IgE antibodies in sera from children suspected of allergic diseases, age, symptoms and severity of disease should be considered.

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(Purpose)
We can speculate much difficulty for parents with food allergy children in eliminating relevant food from daily meal to avoid food reaction. Here we have evaluated the dietary condition of patients with food allergy and investigated the quality of life of the parents having food allergy children.
(Subjects and methods)
We asked the questions to the parents related to the quality of life by using the questionnaire at outpatient clinic of National Hospital Organization Sagamihara National Hospital from September 2002 to July 2003. We also evaluated the dietary condition of the patients performing the elimination if the parents had desires.
(Results)
Total number of the subjects responded to the questionnaire was 138, and mean age of the subjects was 2.0 ± 0.1 years old (mean ± SEM). 72.5 percentages of the parents having food allergy children felt some degree of stress related to the dietary condition of the children or outcome of food allergy. The strength of the stress, which the parents had felt, had association with the number of the items of food elimination. The total intake per day of calorie, protein, calcium, and iron by the subjects did not reach to the levels of average requirement. Especially when the subjects needed elimination of cow's milk products, their intake of calcium was significantly lower than that of subjects without milk allergy.
(Conclusion)
Although the principle of our department against food allergy is “minimum food elimination based on the results of food provocation tests”, the parents with food allergy children seen by us still feel the stress. To minimize the stress, it is very important for the patients and parents to receive the accurate diagnosis by doctors based on the results of food provocation and dietary assessment and support by dietitian as well.

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