Food allergy causes atopic dermatitis in childhood. The gold standard manner for diagnosing food allergy is still food challenge test, and food-specific IgE antibodies are not so reliable. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic significance of food antigen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferative responses and cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen (CLA) expression. Egg challenge test, egg white-specific IgE antibodies,proliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to ovalbumin (OA), and OA-stimulated CLA expression were done for 78 atopic dermatitis patients suspected with egg allergy. The efficiency of lymphocyte proliferative responses; 84.6%, and CLA expression; 86.7% is higher than that of egg white-specific IgE antibodies; 60.3%, respectively. Therefore, food antigen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferative responses and CLA expression are significant diagnostic methods for food allergy with atopic dermatitis.
