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Nasal Provocation Tests With Allergens: Just a Research Tool or Suitable for Everyday Clinical Practice?

  • Allergic Rhinitis (J Máspero, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Nasal provocation test (NPT) with allergens is a simple and safe technique recommended in different diagnostic and research settings. In the daily practice, NPT has proved to be very useful when there are discrepancies between patient’s symptoms and the results of skin or blood testing, for confirming the clinical relevance of a certain allergen in polysensitized patients and also for the diagnosis of new rhinitis phenotypes such as local allergic rhinitis (LAR). In the research field, nasal provocation test with allergens has been widely used in the study of mechanisms of inflammation and allergic response in subjects with allergic rhinitis (AR) and LAR and the study of pathophysiological mechanisms of response allergens to evaluate the therapeutic effect of drugs or immunotherapy in controlled clinical trials. There are key aspects necessary to achieve the best safety and reproducibility of the test, such as the characteristics of the allergen, application techniques, and measurement of the response that must be as objective as possible. The use of short protocols and simple methods of measurement allows the use of NPT in the daily practice as a diagnostic aid and not only a research tool reserved for clinical trials.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Allergy Unit, Regional Hospital of Málaga-IBIMA, Pabellón 6, 1ª planta. Plaza del Hospital Civil s/n, 29009, Málaga, Spain

    Paloma Campo MD, PhD, Esther Barrionuevo MD, PhD, Ibon Eguiluz MD, PhD, María Salas MD, PhD, M. José Torres MD, PhD & Carmen Rondón MD, PhD

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  1. Paloma Campo MD, PhD
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  2. Esther Barrionuevo MD, PhD
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  3. Ibon Eguiluz MD, PhD
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  4. María Salas MD, PhD
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  5. M. José Torres MD, PhD
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  6. Carmen Rondón MD, PhD
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Correspondence to Carmen Rondón MD, PhD.

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Conflict of Interest

Paloma Campo declares that she has no conflict of interest. Esther Barrionuevo declares that she has no conflict of interest. Ibon Eguiluz declares that he has no conflict of interest. María Salas declares that she has no conflict of interest. M. José Torres declares that he has no conflict of interest. Carmen Rondón declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

With regard to the authors’ research cited in this paper, all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. In addition, all applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Allergic Rhinitis

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Campo, P., Barrionuevo, E., Eguiluz, I. et al. Nasal Provocation Tests With Allergens: Just a Research Tool or Suitable for Everyday Clinical Practice?. Curr Treat Options Allergy 4, 98–109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40521-017-0118-4

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