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Case Report

 

Anaphylaxis After Eating Italian Pizza Containing Buckwheat as the Hidden Food Allergen

 

E Heffler, G Guida, I Badiu, F Nebiolo, G Rolla

Department of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy

J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol 2007; Vol. 17(4): 261-263

 

 Abstract


A 20-year-old woman developed anaphylaxis after eating pizza on 4 different occasions in 2 restaurants. Both restaurants made their pizza dough with a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flours. A prick-to-prick test with buckwheat flour was positive. Skin prick tests and specific immunoglobulin E responses to soybean and peanut were weakly positive while the response to buckwheat was negative. We ruled out a pathogenic role for peanut and soybean because the patient usually eats both with no signs of allergic reaction. Double-blind, placebocontrolled food challenges with buckwheat fl our were positive after the administration of a cumulative dose of 2.3 g of the culprit fl our. To our knowledge, our report describes the first case of anaphylaxis after intake of buckwheat flour as the hidden allergen in pizza dough.

Key words: Buckwheat. Pizza. Hidden allergen. Anaphylaxis. Allergy.