[Diagnostic value of glass microfibre-based basophil histamine release test in food allergic children. Comparison with specific IgE antibody and skin scratch test].

ABSTRACT

We evaluated the diagnostic value of the glass microfibre-based histamine release test (HRT), which allows measurements to be performed using small amounts of whole blood, in 50 children with food allergy case histories. The patients were evaluated by radioallergosorbent tests (RAST), skin scratch tests (ST) and food challenge tests. Of the 50 patients, 39 had a confirmed clinical diagnosis of food allergy from food challenge tests and case histories, and were affected by a total of 60 positive allergens (egg 37, milk 11, soy beans 4, wheat 5, rice 3). The concordance, sensitivity, and specificity of HRT with the clinical diagnosis were 85.3%, 66.7% and 92.1%, those of RAST were 59.4%, 90.0% and 48.2%, and those of ST were 84.7%, 71.8% and 88.7%, respectively. The positive predictive values of HRT, RAST and ST were 75.5%, 38.8% and 66.7%. The false positive ratio of HRT (24.5%) was the lowest among all the tests. There was a significant correlation between HRT and RAST (r = 0.513, p < 0.001). However, the concordance of HRT with respect to RAST was 56.0%. The concordance and specificity of HRT in relation to the clinical diagnosis were higher than RAST and the same as ST. The sensitivity of RAST was higher than that of HRT. From these results, we concluded that RAST is good for the screening of allergens and that HRT is a useful diagnostic method for the confirmation of a clinical allergy.