Preliminary report on histamine release, circulating immune complexes, and complement activation in children with...

The effects of dietary restriction and food challenge were evaluated in five children with atopic dermatitis, as a possible predictive marker for the dietary management of this clinically perplexing disease. Two of the five showed significant elevation of plasma histamine; an additional two demonstrated the presence of immune complexes and in the fifth no change was described. The results of these study lend further support to the causal relationship between food allergy and atopic dermatitis, and suggest that the use of these immunologic parameters may be useful in the clinical assessment and management of these patients.