Screening for Wheat and Strawberry Immunoglobulin E_ mediated Allergy in Atopic Children

Abstract

Food allergy (FA) is a serious growing problem that increased in the past 2 decades, particularly in the pediatric age group impacting 2% to 10% of pediatric patients and mounting to approximately 3 million children. Hence FA prevention constitutes an important goal in pediatric practice because there is no current cure. Wheat and strawberry are common food allergens in children. They were incriminated in several clinical presentations. We were stimulated to evaluate the prevalence of IgE mediated wheat and strawberry sensitization and allergy in allergic pediatric population, and their possible impact on different allergic manifestations. Tools of assessment included detailed clinical history, detection of specific IgE sensitization for wheat using skin prick test (SPT), and for strawberry using prick-prick test (PPT), followed by oral elimination/challenge test (OCT) to confirm allergy in sensitized patients. This study included 256 allergic children following up i