Food allergy in Catalonia: Clinical manifestations and its association with airborne allergens

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Abstract
Food allergy affects around 6% of the European population and its prevalence worldwide has been increasing in the last decades, but studies focused on investigating food allergy epidemiology in Europe are lacking. The Cibus project was created to register the main culprit foods and their clinical manifestations in food allergic patients in Catalonia. A specific online database was designed. Allergists from eight different Catalan hospitals registered the new diagnoses of food allergy. 618 food allergic patients were included. Egg and milk were the main elicitors in the early ages, while fruits and nuts were the most frequent in patients >14 years old. Fish was more frequent in children, while seafood and Anisakis allergy were more frequent in the >14-year-old group. Overall, peach was the most prevalent food eliciting an allergic reaction (10%). Food allergy diagnosis was reached using compatible clinical history and positive skin prick test to the involved food in 98% of cases. Globally, urticaria was the most frequently reported manifestation in our population (48.2%), followed by oral allergy syndrome (25.6%) and anaphylaxis (24.8%). The Cibus project gives a full overview of the profile of food allergic patients in Catalonia and reinforces the predominance of plant food allergies in the Mediterranean area.

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