468 Urticarial Vasculitis After Bee-sting Therapy

BACKGROUND: Bee-sting therapy is one of the oriental traditional medical therapies. Some chemical components of bee venom have been known to have anti-inflammatory effects. Recently, traditional therapists use one chemical component (e.g. Apitoxin) for injection therapy using a syringe, instead of sting method with bee itself as to be known traditional method. 31-year-old woman had a lower back pain because of mild HIVD in lumbar spine for 5 months. She had bee-sting therapies for several times for 4 months. During this period, she didn't have any side effects and pain was improved. Her back pain recurred 4 weeks ago and had bee-sting therapy again. The traditional doctor performed intramuscular injections of 1 mL of Apitoxin on her lower back muscle. After 4 days, reddish skin lesions and swelling developed on her legs and spread to trunk. She was transferred and treated with systemic corticosteroid and antihistamine. METHODS: Serum speicific IgE and IgG were measured by immunoCAP for and skin biopsy performed accompanied with managements. RESULTS: High levels of specific IgG but negative of IgE to honey bee venom were observed by immunoCAP. Skin biopsy was revealed as an urticarial vasculitis. CONCLUSIONS: We report the case that suspicous to be serum sickness developed after bee-sting therapy.