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Allergen Component Testing for Food Allergy: Ready for Prime Time?

  • ANAPHYLAXIS AND DRUG ALLERGY (P LIEBERMAN AND S SPECTOR, SECTION EDITORS)
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Abstract

Food allergies can cause life-threatening reactions and greatly influence quality of life. Accurate diagnosis of food allergies is important to avoid serious allergic reactions and prevent unnecessary dietary restrictions, but can be difficult. Skin prick testing (SPT) and serum food-specific IgE (sIgE) levels are extremely sensitive testing options, but positive test results to tolerated foods are not uncommon. Allergen component-resolved diagnostics (CRD) have the potential to provide a more accurate assessment in diagnosing food allergies. Recently, a number of studies have demonstrated that CRD may improve the specificity of allergy testing to a variety of foods including peanut, milk, and egg. While it may be a helpful adjunct to current diagnostic testing, CRD is not ready to replace existing methods of allergy testing, as it not as sensitive, is not widely available, and evaluations of component testing for a number of major food allergens are lacking.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by funding from the 2012 AAAAI/Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Third-Year Fellowship Food Allergy Research Award at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Dr. Kattan) and NIH K23 AI083883 (Dr. Wang).

Disclosures

No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pediatric Allergy & Immunology and Jaffe Institute for Food Allergy, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Jacob D. Kattan & Julie Wang

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Box 1198, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY, 10029-6574, USA

    Jacob D. Kattan & Julie Wang

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  1. Jacob D. Kattan
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  2. Julie Wang
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Correspondence to Jacob D. Kattan.

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Kattan, J.D., Wang, J. Allergen Component Testing for Food Allergy: Ready for Prime Time?. Curr Allergy Asthma Rep 13, 58–63 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-012-0311-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-012-0311-2

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