Background: We aimed to investigate the clinical value of detecting 14 food intolerances.
Methods: A total of 312 patients with food intolerance enrolled in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihar Medical University (Qiqihar, China) from Feb 2016 to Feb 2017 were selected. ELISA was used to detect intolerance specific IgG antibodies for 14 foods (pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, fish, crab, egg white/yolk, tomato, mushroom, milk, corn, rice, soybean, wheat).
Results: The highest average positive rate of the patients was 42.31% for the crab, followed by shrimp 21.15%, egg white/yolk 18.27% and milk 16.99%. The positive rate from high to low was crab, shrimp, egg white/yolk, milk, fish, corn, soybeans, tomatoes, rice, mushrooms, wheat, pork, beef, chicken. There were significant differences in the specific IgG antibody positive rates between shrimp, soybean and wheat in the skin symptoms group, gastrointestinal symptoms group, respiratory symptom group and nervous system symptom group (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in the positive rate of specific IgG antibodies between shrimp, crab and egg white/yolk in the adolescent group, the middle-aged group and the elderly group (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The detection of food-specific IgG antibodies can help to determine which food intolerance caused the disease, and then adopt a fasting or diet method to avoid eating unsuitable foods and continually damaging the body, thus maintaining good health. The detection method provides a new idea for the diagnosis and prevention of diseases.
Keywords: Disease; Food intolerance; Immunoglobulin G; Value.