Food Allergy

Food allergy has increased over the past two decades, with a larger number of patients presenting a myriad of related symptoms and illnesses to physicians and allied health professionals. The growing number of patients poses a challenge to health care providers and confirms the need for developing best clinical practice guidelines. Based on the Expert Panel Report from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Food Allergy: Practical Diagnosis and Management brings to life the developed guidelines with chapters written by international leaders in food allergy clinical care, research, and education, including most of the report's primary authors.

Offering practical advice, each chapter provides clinically relevant information for everyday diagnosis and management of food allergies and related adverse reactions to foods. Chapters begin with clinical questions to focus readers and contain numerous case studies and "Clinical Pearls" to help formulate best practice approaches to patient care. The text provides information that is relevant for diagnosis, organ or diagnosis-specific concerns, daily management, and topics of importance for patient understanding and management of food allergies.

Chapters cover clinical manifestations, triggers and cross-reactivity, acute reactions, and skin, gastrointestinal, and respiratory conditions associated with food allergy. Authors address diagnostic testing, pharmacologic reactions, allergy prevention, and the natural history of common food allergies. They also consider novel approaches to diagnosis and therapy for immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy. The final chapter presents practical resources for physicians and patients, including materials for advising newly diagnosed patients and resources for managing food allergies at home, school, camp, restaurants, and while traveling.

Scott H. Sicherer, M.D., is a professor of pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a researcher at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai in New York. He is chief of the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. He is board certified in pediatrics and in allergy and immunology and specializes in food allergies. His research interests include allergic diseases caused by specific foods, such as peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, seafood, and milk; the natural history of food allergy; atopic dermatitis; gastrointestinal manifestations of food allergies; epidemiology of food allergy; psychosocial issues associated with food allergies; modalities to educate physicians and parents about food allergy; the genetics of food allergy; and novel therapeutics.

Dr. Sicherer has published over 150 articles in scientific journals and has authored two comprehensive books about food allergy as well as numerous book chapters in major pediatric and allergy textbooks. He is a medical adviser to Food Allergy Research & Education. He is associate editor of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) and its sister journal, JACI: In Practice. He is on the board of directors of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. Dr. Sicherer has been consistently recognized as a Top Doctor by Castle-Connolly/ New York Magazine, and has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as being among the top 1% of pediatric allergists. He lectures extensively on food allergy topics to various professional and lay organizations, and has had numerous television and radio appearances to discuss food allergy.