Loading...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) guidelines on food allergy (JW Pediatr Adolesc Med Jan 19 2011) stress the overdiagnosis of food allergy and the importance of judicious testing. Because of the low positive predictive value (PPV) of skin-prick tests and allergen-specific IgE (sIgE) tests, these tests should be performed only in patients with a compatible history of IgE-mediated food allergy (e.g., anaphylaxis, urticaria) or with diseases associated with food allergy (e.g., eosinophilic esophagitis or uncontrolled eczema). Testing for IgE-mediated food allergy should be done only if the offending food causes reproducible symptoms within minutes up to a maximum of 2 hours every time the food is ingested. Milk,…