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NIH releases guidelines to help diagnosis, treatment of patients with food allergies

J Clin Allergy Immunol; 2010;126(6):S1-S58.

A panel of experts representing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases issued comprehensive guidelines to assist health care professionals in diagnosing food allergy and managing the care of people with the disease.

"Food allergy affects millions of Americans, and these individuals seek care from a wide variety of health care providers," NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said in a press release. "Because these guidelines provide standardized, concise recommendations on how to diagnose and manage food allergy and treat acute food allergy reactions across specialties, we expect both clinicians and food allergy patients to greatly benefit from these clear state-of-the-science clinical standards."

The Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States: Report of the NIAID-sponsored Expert Panel recommend uniform standards for diagnosing and managing food allergy. The expert panel took more than 2 years to draft the guidelines, which are intended to establish consistency in terminology and definitions, diagnostic criteria and patient management practices. They are for use by primary care providers and specialists in allergy, dermatology, gastroenterology, emergency medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine.

"These guidelines are an important starting point toward a goal of a more cogent, evidence-based approach to the diagnosis and management of food allergy," Joshua Boyce, MD, chairman of the panel, said in a press release. "We believe that they provide health care professionals with a clear-cut definition of what constitutes a food allergy and a logical framework for the appropriate use of diagnostic testing and accurate interpretation of the results."

In addition to identifying gaps of knowledge about food allergy, the guidelines also include information about the prevalence of food allergy, natural history of food allergy and closely associated diseases, and management of acute allergic reactions to food.

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