Follow up of Patients After Oral Immunotherapy for Cow's Milk, Eggs and Peanuts

Food allergy is a potentially life threatening condition. The current practice consists of elimination diet and injectable epinephrine in case of a reaction.

Recently, oral immunotherapy (OIT) has emerged as an treatment for food allergy in milk eggs and peanuts. Since 4/2010,a clinical OIT program for milk eggs and peanuts is performed at the Institute fir Allergy Asthma and Immunology at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center with ~500 patients so far. Patients with IgE-mediated food allergy that are >4 years old are eligible.

In this study we intent to follow patients who completed the program. Patients will fill a questionnaire regarding current consumption of the allergenic food, adverse reactions experienced and treatments required including the use of EpiPen. Patients underwent skim prick tests (SPT) for the allergenic food prior to initiation and treatment and will undergo SPT again upon entering the study. Blood tests for IgE, IGG4, basophil activation and cytokines will be obtained.

Patients who are not consuming the allergenic food regularly will undergo an oral food challenge in clinic.