Studies with volunteers on the role of histamine in suspected scombrotoxicosis

Abstract

Abstract The results are reported of single‐blind, medically supervised studies in volunteers of the association between the histamine content of mackerel and the incidence of scombrotoxicosis. Volunteers consumed 25 or 50 g of fresh or spoiled mackerel containing varying quantities of endogenous or added histamine. In one study the ability of HI and H2 histamine antagonists to modify symptoms was investigated. Objective parameters (pulse rate, skin temperature and peak expiratory flow rate) were recorded for 6 h, and subjective parameters (headache, flushing, oral tingling, visual disturbances, abdominal pain, nausea, palpitations, wheeziness, diarrhoea, flatulence, shivering and miscellaneous) for 24 h. No significant effects were observed, even with portions of spoiled mackerel containing 300 mg histamine, or mackerel from a batch which was reported to have been associated with an incident diagnosed as scombrotoxicosis. It is concluded that the precise combination of circumstances required to cause a scombrotoxic event were not reproduced in these studies, but it is tentatively concluded that histamine alone is unlikely to be the causative agent.