Practical protocol of the food allergy committee of the seicap on open oral food challenges to nuts

Abstract

Food allergy is rising rapidly among children, and allergy to nuts is one of the most prevalent allergies among them. The category "nuts and seeds" include several plant foods from different botanical families, very different from each other. It is not uncommon to detect co-sensitization to different nuts. However, true co-allergy is less frequent. Up to 80% of patients with positive skin prick tests or specific IgE without true history of reaction who avoid certain nuts, might tolerate them in an Oral Food Challenge (OFC). Although molecular diagnostic techniques help to improve nut allergy diagnosis, OFC still remains the gold standard. For this reason, after reviewing the current bibliography and the recommendations of different allergy societies on standardization of open OFC, the Food Allergy Committee of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology (SEICAP) food allergy working group proposed a unified protocol to undertake these OFC, which include preliminary recommendations, unification of total dose, number of doses and interval between doses. Additionally, this group offers an interactive table to facilitate calculation of doses specific to each nut under study. (C) 2021 Codon Publications. Published by Codon Publications.