Atopic dermatitis and gastrointestinal involvement

Although the relationship between Atopic Dermatitis (AD) and food allergy has been established by clinical and laboratory tests, the role of food is much disputed in AD. The allergenic relevance of some proteins seems to be important, in fact, only in a minor percentage of patients, especially in the first years of life. Even not considering the problem of food allergy, gastrointestinal involvement in AD may be suggested by the fact that some children affected by AD have also an impaired physical development. In this study we have tried to verify the relevance of gastrointestinal involvement, allergic or non allergic, in children affected by AD who were hospitalized during the last year. Fourteen children affected by AD (11 boys and 3 girls) aged from 3 months to 14 years presented growth impairment. Eleven patients were put on diet before or at the moment of hospitalization, while three were not. In all patients the laboratory test (RAST, PRIST, Prick tests) were non contributory. Gastrointestinal symptoms of clinical relevance were not noted in our patients during the period of hospitalization. We conclude that gastrointestinal involvement may be observed in AD. However food allergy is not observed in all children affected from AD and an hypoallergenic diet is not carried out by all of them. Thus the growth impairment that can be observed in some of these children seems to be multifactorial and not exclusively related with the severity of the disease or with the diet.