ANNE MARIE DITTO, M.D.
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Anne Marie Ditto, M.D. is the first Allergist-Immunologist to join Suburban ENT. She is originally from Rockford, Illinois, graduating from Rockford East High School in 1978. She got her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University, majoring in French and studying her junior year at La Sorbonne in Paris, France. She attended medical school at University of Illinois in Chicago and did a residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University. She completed her Allergy-Immunology fellowship at Northwestern where she remained as a faculty physician for 25 years, training over 100 fellows in Allergy-Immunology. She was also active in teaching residents and students, earning numerous teaching awards.
Dr. Ditto has extensive experience in treating a variety of allergic diseases such as drug allergy, food allergy, urticaria (hives), allergic rhinitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, eosinophilic disorders, venom (stinging insect) allergy and anaphylaxis. In addition to allergy treatment, Dr. Ditto also specializes in the diagnosis and management of asthma, a lung disease often associated with allergies. Asthma commonly presents with shortness of breath and wheezing, but oftentimes cough may be the only symptom of untreated asthma. It is well understood that poorly controlled allergies can exacerbate asthma, and conversely, good control of nasal allergies can significantly lessen asthma symptoms.
During her fellowship and early years as an attending she became a renowned expert in Idiopathic Anaphylaxis in both children and adults with patient referrals throughout North America including Canada and Mexico. She has numerous publications in peer reviewed journals, has written chapters in books, has edited 2 books and has presented at various allergy societies. She also served 5 years as a consultant for pulmonary-allergy drugs advisory committee for the FDA. Her special interest in asthma has led to her volunteering at a clinic for uninsured patients, where she started an asthma clinic 2010 and continues to see patients.
Dr. Ditto is a certified Pilates instructor and practices pilates regularly. She believes that exercise and good nutrition are very important to general health and she encourages this with her patients. Dr. Ditto also believes in an integrative approach to patient care. Since allergy often affects many parts of the body, she thinks physicians working together to improve patient care is important and she is very excited to join Suburban ENT.