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Randomised, double blind, crossover challenge study of allergenicity of peanut oils in subjects allergic to peanuts
J O Hourihane1, S J Bedwani, T P Dean
1University Department of Child Health, Southampton General Hospital.
Objective:
To determine the in vivo allergenicity of two grades of peanut oil for a large group of subjects with proved allergy to peanuts.
Design:
Double blind, crossover food challenge with crude peanut oil and refined peanut oil.
Setting:
Dedicated clinical investigation unit in a university hospital.
Subjects:
60 subjects allergic to peanuts; allergy was confirmed by challenge tests.
Outcome Measures:
Allergic reaction to the tested peanut oils.
Results:
None of the 60 subjects reacted to the refined oil; six (10%) reacted to the crude oil. Supervised peanut challenge caused considerably less severe reactions than subjects had reported previously.
Conclusions:
Crude peanut oil caused allergic reactions in 10% of allergic subjects studied and should continue to be avoided. Refined peanut oil did not pose a risk to any of the subjects. It would be reasonable to recommend a change in labelling to distinguish refined from crude peanut oil.
Related Concept Videos
Allergic Reactions
Blind Procedures
Crossover Experiments
Crossover designs are performed even with smaller sample sizes since the samples can act as their controls. These are better than simple randomized trials since patients are exposed to all the treatments.
Blinding

