Gastrointestinal Allergy

Abstract

GASTROINTESTINAL allergy is a diagnosis frequently entertained, occasionally evaluated and rarely established. It offers, to its enthusiastic supporters, a reasonable explanation for many obscure abdominal complaints. To the skeptical, it frequently appears as a specious and unwarranted diagnosis. Although these conflicting views cannot be resolved on the basis of existing knowledge, the present status of gastrointestinal allergy is examined in this review with the hope of separating the well founded from the hypothetical.The term includes reactions occurring in the sensitized gastrointestinal tract as a result of contact with an allergen, whether the allergen is an ingested food or reaches . . .