The Most Common Food Allergens in Patients with Allergy Symptoms referred to Mofid Children’s Hospital (2013-15)

Abstract

Introduction: Food allergy (FA) is heterogeneous disease, affecting multiple organs like skin, respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts, which have different forms from a local allergy to a systematic anaphylaxis. The prevalence of FA is about 4% among children in the world and the prevalence is increasing recently. Th2 and IgE-mediated reactions play an important role in this disease. In this study we determined the most common food allergens in children referred to Mofid Children's Hospital. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 396 patients with skin, respiratory and gastrointestinal allergies, which were referred to Mofid Children's Hospital, 2013-15. Allergen specific IgE was measured via an immunoblotting method using AlleisaScreen® system kit and their data were collected. Results: Of 396 patients 246 (62.1%) were male and 150 (37.9%) were female. The range of patient’s age was between1-12 and the mean± SD were 4.72±2.91 years. The most common allergens were milk, wheat flour, egg white, casein and cheese mix, respectively. Conclusion: This study showed that the order of common food allergens in this study was different from other reports; this might be due to the different food habits and /or ethnic diversities.