(HealthDay News) − Asthma patients with a history of food allergy are less likely than similar individuals without asthma to fail an oral food challenge.
Carrie M. Lee, RN, MSN, from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed data on oral food challenges from 32 patients with asthma and 73 individuals without asthma, all of whom had either a clinical food allergy or a history of sensitization.
The researchers found that the rate of failure of oral food challenges, defined as immediate or delayed symptoms during or after the challenge, was 12.5% for patients with asthma and 20.5% for patients without asthma. Reactions included food refusal, erythema, irritability, pruritus, urticaria, emesis, cough, and wheeze. Symptom treatment was similar between the groups.
“Patients with asthma had a lower failure rate than those without asthma,” Lee and colleagues conclude. “A history of asthma was not associated with severity of oral food challenge reaction or resulting intervention.”
Abstract No. 552
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