Dermatol. praxi. 2008;2(2):88-91

Food allergy diagnostics in patients with atopic eczema

MUDr. Květuše Ettlerová

Ambulance alergologie a klinické imunologie, Hradec Králové

Clinical manifestation of food allergy (FA) includes noneczematous reactions and it is clear food can provoke flares of atopic eczema (AE), particularly in infants. Cow´s milk and hen´s eggs allergy are the most frequent in children. Inhaled allergens and pollen-related food are greater importance in older children, adolescents and adults. „Classical“ food allergens may worsen eczema not as common as in childhood. The food responsible for worsering of eczema can only be diagnosed by a diagnostic procedure, taking into account as the base the patient´s history, skin prick tests (SPT) and determing food-specific IgE in vitro. Since specific IgE, prick tests and the history do not correlate with clinical observations, food challenges are necessary to show the clinical relevance of the findings. The placebo-controlled, double- blinded oral food challenge is the gold standard in the diagnostic procedure of food-associated reactions. The diagnostic goal is to avoid unnecessary or even harmful diet. The atopy patch test (APT) can be considered as an additional diagnostic tool. APT are still not generally recommended for routine dagnoses of food-induced eczema.

Keywords: food allergy, atopic eczema, skin prick test, specific IgE, oral food challenge

Published: June 1, 2008  Show citation