title: Food intolerance and skin prick test in treated and untreated irritable bowel syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To correlate the clinical features of treated and untreated patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to the results of skin prick test (SPT) for food and inhalant allergens.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited 105 subjects to form three different target groups: treated group (n=44) undergoing treatment for IBS, untreated group (n=31) meeting the Rome II criteria without treatment for IBS, control group (n=30) with no IBS symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  SPT results were different among the three groups in which SPT was positive in 17 (38.6%) treated patients, in 5 (16.1%) untreated patients and in 1 (3.3%) control (P<0.01). The number of positive SPTs was greater in the IBS group than in the control group (P<0.001). The number of positive food SPTs was higher in the treated IBS group than in the untreated IBS group (P=0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Positive food SPT is higher in IBS patients than in controls.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea 17 Haengdang-dong, Sungdong-ku, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
authors: Dae-Won
authors: DW
authors: Jun
authors: Oh-Young
authors: OY
authors: Lee
authors: Ho-Joo
authors: HJ
authors: Yoon
authors: Seok-Hwa
authors: SH
authors: Lee
authors: Hang-Lak
authors: HL
authors: Lee
authors: Ho-Soon
authors: HS
authors: Choi
authors: Byung-Chul
authors: BC
authors: Yoon
authors: Min-Ho
authors: MH
authors: Lee
authors: Dong-Hoo
authors: DH
authors: Lee
authors: Sang-Hoen
authors: SH
authors: Cho