Clinical and experimental allergy : journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology
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Allergy to kiwi fruit appears increasingly common, but few studies have evaluated its clinical characteristics, or evaluated methods of investigating the allergy. ⋯ Kiwi fruit should be considered a significant food allergen, capable of causing severe reactions, particularly in young children. DBPCFC confirmed allergy to kiwi fruit in 53% of the subjects tested, who had a previous history suggestive of kiwi allergy. Skin testing with fresh fruit has good sensitivity (93%), but poor specificity (45%) in this population. CAP sIgE and a commercially available skin test solution were both much less sensitive (54%; 75%) but had better specificity (90%; 67%).