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Recurrent ocular inflammation may benefit from a nutritional treatment approach
ROME — Recurrent severe keratitis and other forms of ocular inflammation may be food related and could benefit from a nutritional approach to treatment, according to an immunologist speaking here.
At the joint Refractive.online and SICCSO meeting, Attilio Francesco Speciani, MD, presented the case of a 7-year-old girl referred for recurrent keratitis and severe symptoms for more than 3 years that did not respond to conventional treatment.
Attilio Francesco Speciani
Speciani measured the girl’s levels of B cell-activating factor, platelet-activating factor, toll-like receptor 2 and other cytokines that are specific markers of food-related inflammation.
“Once we found that this was the root of the problem, we put the girl on a specific diet where fermented foods and nickel-containing foods were initially excluded and then gradually reintroduced in a way similar to the weaning process. We also administered the oral immune therapy using a low-dose tolerance inducer against house dust mites to reduce the overall reactivity and not only the allergen-specific reaction,” Speciani said.
The keratitis promptly began to resolve, and the girl recovered fully by 3 months.
“We treat many cases of chronic inflammation using this innovative nutritional approach and suggest to consider testing for food-related cytokine levels whenever persistent, chronic inflammation is present,” Speciani said.