Diagnostic tests for food allergy

The diagnosis of food allergy is still based primarily on a detailed medical history and comprehensive physical examination. Clinical or laboratory tests only serve as an add-on tool to confirm the diagnosis. The standard techniques include skin prick testing and in-vitro testing for specific IgE-an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSingapore medical journal Vol. 51; no. 1; pp. 4 - 9
Main Authors GEREZ, I. F. A, SHEK, L. P. C, CHNG, H. H, LEE, B. W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Singapore Singapore Medical Association 2010
Subjects
Allergic diseases
Biological and medical sciences
Digestive allergic diseases
Food Hypersensitivity - diagnosis
General aspects
Humans
Immunoglobulin E - analysis
Immunopathology
Intradermal Tests - standards
Medical sciences
Sensitivity and Specificity
Immunopathology
Food allergy
in-vitro specific IgE test
IgE
Oral administration
kinesiology and electrodermal testing
IgG
cytotoxic food testing
Exploration
Intradermal administration
In vitro
ALCAT test
oral food challenge
food specific IgG test
unproven allergy tests
Digestive diseases
Tropical medicine
skin prick test
Diagnosis
sublingual/intradermal provocation tests
Food
Skin test
Provocation test
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Summary:The diagnosis of food allergy is still based primarily on a detailed medical history and comprehensive physical examination. Clinical or laboratory tests only serve as an add-on tool to confirm the diagnosis. The standard techniques include skin prick testing and in-vitro testing for specific IgE-antibodies, and oral food challenges. Properly done, oral food challenges continue to be the gold standard in the diagnostic workup. Recently, unconventional diagnostic methods are increasingly used. These include food specific IgG, antigen leucocyte antibody and sublingual/intradermal provocation tests, as well as cytotoxic food and applied kinesiology and electrodermal testings. These lack scientific rationale, standardisation and reproducibility. There have been no well-designed studies to support these tests, and in fact, several authors have disproved their utility. These tests, therefore, should not be advocated in the evaluation of patients with suspected food allergy because the results do not correlate with clinical allergy and may lead to misleading advice and treatment.
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ISSN:0037-5675