Improving peanut allergy diagnosis using specific immunoglobulin E peanut component and basophil activation testing

Peanut allergy is one of the most prevalent and deadliest food allergies. As public awareness has increased about the dangers of food allergies, there has been a corresponding increase in the research on peanut allergies. Significant increases in practical applications of our knowledge have occurred in the last few decades including questions that have been answered as to the best routes and methods of exposure to peanuts, there are innovative new therapies for possibly resolving peanut allergies, and cell based assays can now utilize components of peanuts that have significantly better predictive power and reproducibility than the previous whole peanut extracts. The next step is to be able to correlate laboratory tests to the severity of peanut allergy symptoms without having to expose the patients to the suspected food and risk urticaria, anaphylaxis, or even death. Basophil Activation Testing (BAT) is a promising way to do this and to help improve the correct diagnosis of potentially severe, life-threatening peanut allergy. The results from this study showed that BAT tests were able to correctly predict the outcome of food challenges as well as discriminate between peanut-sensitized and peanut allergic patients.