UPDATE ON FOOD ALLERGIES

Abstract

Food allergy has been defined as adverse reaction to food in which “immunological mechanism have been demonstrated”. The clinical presentation of food allergy involves a large spectrum of symptoms ranging from skin like urticaria, angioedema, atopic eczema, dermatitis, gastrointestinal (vomiting, colic, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation), respiratory (rhinorrhea, sneezing, cough, dyspnea). According to a recent review the point prevalence of self-reported food allergy is approximately six times higher than challenge food allergy. A proper diagnosis is necessary for a sufficient and safe management. The core stone of diagnosis of food allergy is a careful dietary history. Mostly food allergies are self reported, but also a great number of tests are available. The most widely used tests for food allergies diagnosis are: skin prick tests (SPT), specific IgE (sIgE), component resolved diagnosis (CRD) and the atopy patch test (APT). Besides food avoidance there is also growing interest in the effectiveness of potential immunomodulatory treatment approaches, including sublingual and oral immunotherapy to induce tolerance, particularly for peanut allergy.