The significance of guanine in house dust and its application to epidemiological study

Abstract House dust has been incriminated as an important causative allergen in bronchial asthma. Guanine is contained in living mites and their feces. A quantitative method to determine the level of guanine in house dust was improved. Since guanine makes up 0.3% of the living mite and the guanine concentration in house dust correlates highly with the number of mite present (r=0.704), it is suggested that the guanine level in house dust could be used to as a marker of mite allergens in epidemiological study.