The eliciting dose (the amount required to trigger a reaction) of peanut in double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenges (DBPCFCs) has been found to decrease with the increase in age, which may explain why adolescents experience more severe reactions to peanut more often than younger children do.

Scientists at the Department of Paediatric Pulmonology and Allergy, University Medical Centre Groningen, in the Netherlands, took data from children who had clinical reactions to peanut DBPCFCs between 2001 and 2009. In 126 positive DBPCFCs with peanut, it was found that age over 10 years, a specific IgE level above the lowest tertile and the absence of atopic dermatitis were associated with reactions to lower doses.

Source: The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

First published in August 2011

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