Abstract

Background: The double-blind food challenge is the gold standard for diagnosis of food allergy, eventhough it is difficult to standardize and execute. An increase in allergy prevalence worldwide accentuates the importance of evaluating food allergy markers, in order to help the diagnosis. Objective: Elaboration of an operational definition for food hypersensitivity (FH) and evaluate the role of allergy markers, endoscopic and hystological findings, gastric mucosa cytokines and personal/family history of allergy in children. Method: Enrollment of children with suspected peptic disease referred for endoscopy. We obtained antral biopsies for hystological evaluation (eosinophil and mast cell count) and measurement of mucosal cytokines through an ELISA test. Patients were evaluated with Prick test, total serum IgE and clinical questionnaires for allergies. They were divided into two groups; children with and without food hypersensitivity. Results: 97 children were enrolled (mean: 11.7 ± 3, range 3-18). 4% of children had FH. The endoscopic findings did not correlate with the presence of FH. 74.1% of patients without FH had eosinophils in the gastric mucosa compared to groups with FH which had 100% (p < 0.05). Only IL-2 among the evaluated cytokines was found in a greater concentration in patients without FH. 33% of patients considered themselves having history of personal allergies versus 11.8% of people without FH (p < 0.05). Conclusions: 12,4% of children with digestive symptoms referred to endoscopy have FH. There are no clinical, endoscopic or hystological differences between patients with or without FH.