Gastrointestinal Food Allergy in Children — Pressing Issue at Present

Abstract

Objective: to determine the characteristics of gastrointestinal allergy in children with allergic and somatic pathology. Patients and Methods. 106 children were examined: study group — 60 patients with an allergy, comparison group — 46 children with digestive diseases alone. Clinical, laboratory (total immunoglobulin E) and endoscopic morphological methods were used. Results. Cow’s milk proteins, citrus fruits, chocolate, strawberry were the most frequent causes of food allergies. Gastrointestinal symptoms in allergy manifested by pain and dyspeptic syndrome (nausea, heartburn), altered bowel elimination. 28 % of patients hadn’t abdominalgia. Blood eosinophilia has been detected in 61.7 % of children. Endoscopically, motor function was characterized by dysmotility of the stomach, esophagus or duodenum, in most cases by refluxes. Incompetence of cardia was diagnostically significant (χ2(1) = 14.095, φ = 0.374) in food allergies. Visual features of the mucous membrane (lymphoid hyperplasia, multiple small white patches) of the upper gastrointestinal tract had no significant correlation in patients from study and comparison groups (χ2 not higher than the critical value). Cases of the combination of bronchial asthma, allergic rhinitis and food allergy with normal IgE level were detected, which is caused by not-IgE-dependent reactions. Conclusions. Endoscopic and morphological study should be applied in the differential diagnosis of allergic and non-allergic lesions of the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal.