Clinical peculiarities of gastrointestinal symptoms in children with food allergy

Introduction. Pediatric allergy problems are widely spread among children of almost all age groups. Number of cases with combined allergic a digestive disorders increases and study of gastrointestinal lesions in children with allergies became an urgent medical and social problem. It is based on the increasing frequency of both allergy and pathology of the digestive system, increasing severity of cases and necessity to analyze type of gastrointestinal disorder in children with allergy and correlation among it. Objective. To study the clinical features of gastrointestinal symptoms in children with food allergies. Materials and methods. 169 pediatric patients 3–17 years old were examined. The main group was of 105 children with food allergies, the control group – 64 children without allergies. Verification of food allergy and pathology of the digestive system was carried out in accordance with the current protocols. All patients had skin prick tests, provocative test, determination of specific IgE. All patients were divided into 3 groups by age: 1st – 3–6 years old, 2nd – 7–11 years old, 3rd – 12–17 years old. The results were processed by the methods of variation statistics. Results. Gastrointestinal manifestations were observed in children of all age groups (59 %, 65 %, 74 %). Skin manifestations predominated in the 1st and the 3rd group. Respiratory symptoms – in groups 2 and 3. A combination (more often of skin and gastrointestinal) manifestations was found in group 3. Pain syndrome in children of the main group was characterized by moderate intensity (55.2 %), more often not associated with food intake (45.7 %), localized in the umbilical region (58 %), less often in the epigastrium (23.4 %), in 15 % there was no pain. Dyspeptic syndrome was manifested by nausea (36.2 %), decreased appetite (25.7 %) and belching (17.1 %). Dyspeptic syndrome was absent in 34.3 % of patients. The manifestations of asthenovegetative syndrome were noted in 38.1 % of children in the main group. The correlation between the type of allergen and the reason of gastrointestinal symptoms has not been identified. Conclusions. A variety of clinical manifestations of food allergy has been proven in the form of skin, gastrointestinal, respiratory symptoms and their combination. Gastrointestinal symptoms indicate the presence of functional disorders of the digestive tract. With age, the variety of food allergens increases, without qualitatively affecting the nature of gastrointestinal symptoms.