Methods: The number of food allergy patients seen in our department from January to December in 2010 was a total of 1,822 (male: 1207, female: 615, mean age: 5.8±3.8 y). We collected and analyzed the clinical information of these patients from our medical record. We obtained information on the age of FA onset & FA diagnosis, clinical types of FA at the onset, causative food allergens, other allergic complications, and application of oral immunotherapy (OIT).
Results: The average age of FA onset was 8 months, and that of diagnosis was 1 year old, respectively. The most common clinical types of FA at the time of onset were infantile atopic dermatitis (AD) type with food allergy (66.4%) followed by immediate type (30.8%). Food allergens avoided by the patients were the total number of 4,203 items (2.1 items as average). The most common eliminated food was hen's egg (1,245 cases; 29.6%), followed by cow's milk (786 cases; 18.7%), peanut (449 cases; 10.7%), and wheat (407 cases; 9.7%). Food-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis (FDEIA) was the total of 18 cases, and the most common causative food for FDEIA was wheat (10 cases) followed by peach (4 cases). One hundred and seventy five cases (9.6%) were currently receiving OIT. Main causative foods under OIT were hen's egg (63 cases), cow's milk (80 cases), and wheat (30 cases). The average starting age of OIT was 7.1 years old. Regarding complications of allergic diseases other than FA, eleven hundred nineteen (61.4%) had atopic dermatitis, and 541 (29.7%) bronchial asthma.
Conclusions: We were able to clarify the cross section of food allergy patients in our department and to obtain the basic data to follow continuous transition of these patients.