Atopic Dermatitis and Food Hypersensitivity

To the Editor: There is a discrepancy between the conclusions of Sampson et al. (July 27 issue)¹ regarding the relation of their findings to atopic dermatitis (eczema) and the conclusions drawn from the same paper by Metcalfe in the accompanying editorial.² Although the group of patients with both atopic dermatitis and food hypersensitivity had higher rates of spontaneous release of histamine from basophils than the controls, the rates in a second patient group with atopic dermatitis but without food hypersensitivity did not differ from those in the normal control group. Sampson et al. did not study patients with food hypersensitivity…