Food intolerance and skin prick test in treated and untreated irritable bowel syndrome.
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.
Jun
Dae-Won
DW
Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea 17 Haengdang-dong, Sungdong-ku, Seoul 133-791, Korea.
Lee
Oh-Young
OY
Yoon
Ho-Joo
HJ
Lee
Seok-Hwa
SH
Lee
Hang-Lak
HL
Choi
Ho-Soon
HS
Yoon
Byung-Chul
BC
Lee
Min-Ho
MH
Lee
Dong-Hoo
DH
Cho
Sang-Hoen
SH