Subjects:
Informed consent was obtained from all participants and the study protocol was approved by the Western University Research Ethics Board for human subjects (REB No. 11883E) as well as the London Health Sciences Research Ethics Board. Three groups of individuals were included in our research study. The first group consisted of patients who had experienced a β-lactam antibiotic-induced SSLR. These individuals developed symptoms highly suggestive of SSLR as a result of β-lactam antibiotic administration. Overall, 19 β-lactam antibiotic hypersensitive (BLHS) patients between the age of 7 and 77 years were recruited. The patients’ symptoms are summarized in Table 1. PMBCs isolated from each of these demonstrated dose-related toxicity in a lymphocyte toxicity assay (LTA) assessing susceptibility to reactive drug metabolites. The second study group consisted of 19 healthy volunteers who have denied any history of drug hypersensitivity reactions or exposure to beta-lactams.