Pediatric Allergy & Immunology

The Division of Allergy and Immunology at Lurie Children’s treats more children for allergies and asthma than any other hospital in Illinois. Several of our allergist/immunologists are leaders in their field, having worked with national organizations to improve the understanding and care of pediatric asthma, allergies and immune deficiencies.

Our food allergy team performs cutting-edge food allergy diagnoses, including oral food challenges, the best way to confirm a food allergy. We have the capacity to safely perform this test in children in a controlled manner. Our specialists perform 350 or more oral food challenges each year, far more than most other hospitals.

Lurie Children’s has the most comprehensive program in the Chicago area to evaluate primary immune deficiencies. Our program is one of 125 globally recognized Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic Centers for Primary Immune Deficiencies, which are dedicated to improving the awareness, early detection and treatment of these serious conditions.

We work closely with highly specialized laboratories at Lurie Children’s, such as the Clinical Immunology Laboratory. This laboratory has pioneered diagnostic tests for primary immune deficiencies that are now used around the world, such as the Dihydrorhodamine (DHR) Flow Cytometry Assay for diagnosis of Chronic Granulomatous Disease.

Lurie Children’s also provides comprehensive treatment to patients with primary immune deficiencies with outpatient treatments in the Ambulatory Infusion Center or definitive therapy via stem cell transplantation. Lurie Children’s has a Severe Immunodeficiency Stem Cell Transplant Program made up of physicians and nurse practitioners from the stem cell transplantation and allergy and immunology specialties. This program is part of the Primary Immune Deficiency Transplant Consortium, a research consortium that evaluates the most effective methods to treat primary immunodeficiency diseases through transplantation, gene therapy or enzyme replacement.

Although most of these diseases are rare, our primary immune deficiencies team cares for 340 patients annually. Because these conditions are often inherited, our team provides genetic screening of patients’ close family members and works with genetics experts at Lurie Children’s to provide genetic counseling.

We also help the The Chicago Institute for Fetal Health in the prenatal diagnosis of primary immune deficiencies. Our program is part of the U.S. Immunodeficiency Network, a research consortium established to advance scientific research of primary immune deficiencies.

Our doctors also work with gastroenterologists to provide multidisciplinary care for eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases.