Allergenicity of Common Foods Restricted in Respiratory Allergy |
| |
Authors: | Jyotsna Sharman Lata Kumar Surjit Singh |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Pediatrics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh;(2) Allergy and Immunology Research Laboratory, Advanced Pediatrics Center, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, 160 012 Chandigarh, India |
| |
Abstract: | Although hypersensitivity to foods is often linked to exacerbations of symptoms of respiratory allergy, no such information
is available regarding the foods traditionally considered to play a probable etiological role in respiratory allergy in India,
which are in fact quite different from the ones implicated in the West. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether
the practice of withholding certain common foods by parents and practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine (i.e. Ayurvedic
and Unani systems of medicine) in children suffering from respiratory allergy had any scientific basis or explanation as judged
by modern techniques of investigation. Skin prick tests were performed on 64 children with symptoms pertaining to respiratory
allergy (32 each in study and control group) using crude antigenic food extracts. Oral food challenges were administered to
children to confirm or rule out allergenicity of food (s) incriminated on the basis of the clinical history and/or a positive
skin test. Parental history of food restriction alone, in absence of positive skin prick test was of little value in predicting
a positive response to the food challenges (1 challenge positive out of 77 based on food restriction: 1.29%). Only 27.02%
and 18.75% of positive skin tests were found to be clinically significant in study and control groups respectively. Traditionally,
food beliefs were upheld in only 12.5% children for immediate onset clinical reactions (with 5.31% of the foods restricted
in their diet) and 9.37% children for delayed onset clinical reactions (with 3.19% of the foods restricted in their diet).
The present study shows that even though food restriction is a common practice in patients with respiratory allergy in India,
objective documentation of Type I reactions due to these foods cannot be obtained in a majority of such children. |
| |
Keywords: | Antigen Asthma Food hypersensitivity Respiratory allergy Traditional medicine |
本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|