Intradermal skin tests (two dilutions) carried out systematically with 5 muscle-relaxant drugs were used to study the cross-reactivity between these drugs in 131 patients who had suffered from anaphylaxis. The skin tests were positive for at least 2 drugs in 65.6 of the cases. We observed a significant concordance (positive-positive or negative-negative skin tests) between pancuronium and vecuronium (p + of the ammonium ions included in a ring as in pancuronium and the presence of a ‘choline-like’ side chain as in suxamethonium. But there was no significant correlation between skin test diameters. Altogether, these results suggest that in vivo there is no ‘true’ cross-reactivity between the drugs except frequently between pancuronium and vecuronium. In all other cases, the patients have probably specific IgE antibodies for each drug, all these antibodies being able to recognize the ammonium determinant; this common property may be insufficient to induce a clinical
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