Environmental Factors Urging the Development of Atopic Diseases in 75 Children

Abstract

Prediction of atopic disorders is an important step and should be carried out by examining both genetic factors and neonatal conditions. It has been known for centuries that heredity plays an important role in the development of atopy. A child with a negative family history still has about a 5-15% risk of developing atopy. However, children with a parental history of atopic disease are at higher risk for the development of atopic symptoms.It has been found that if one parent is affected, the chances of an offspring being affected vary between 20 and 40%. If both parents are affected the figure increases up to 40-60%, and 50-80% if both show the same allergic manifestations. The risk of atopy in children who have an allergic sibling ranges between 25 and 35% [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10].The importance of genetic factors is also demonstrated by other data: AbstractAllergic asthma and rhinitis, Atopic Dermatitis (AD), urticaria and gastrointestinal allergy, are common diseases of infants and children. It was recently estimated that 14% of children suffer from AD, 8% from food allergy, and 12% from asthma [1,2]. The cumulated incidence of these diseases in adolescents has been estimated between 25-35%, while the prevalence is about 20% [3]. The phenotypic expression of these illnesses varies extensively, being very mild in some cases, severe in many, and even life threatening in others. Specific IgE antibodies to foods and positive challenge tests to a number of food allergens are frequently present in children with these disorders. Cow's Milk (CM) appears to be the most common offending food both in gastrointestinal (vomiting, diarrhea, etc) and in cutaneous manifestations (urticaria and AD). About 0.5-7% of infants suffer from more or less adverse reactions to CM [4]. Babies particularly of atopic parents are at high risk of developing atopic diseases; therefore they are defined as at-risk babies [5][6][7].Atopy can interfere with a child's life at any age level, with varying severity. Intractable diarrhea due to CM Allergy (CMA) and AD are the most frequent in infants, where the clinical manifestations are more severe than in older children. Respiratory allergy and bronchial asthma can be serious illnesses in younger as well as in older children.The desire to understand the multifaceted problem of atopy has stimulated the clinicians' and academicians' imagination for decades. Therefore interest has been focused on methods for the prediction and prevention of atopy [5][6][7][8][9]. Prevention of IgE-mediated diseases relies on the skill necessary to overcome the natural forces unceasingly working to sensitize humans to produce IgE antibodies. The phenotypic expression of allergic disease ensues from an elaborate interrelationship between the atopy-prone genetic constitution of a child and the experienced environment that surrounds it. Prevention of atopy could potentially be met by selectively interfering with the genetic and environmental factors that appear to be responsible in concert for the final phenotypic exp...