Peanut allergy diagnosis made easier

Monday, 18 October 2010 08:54

While double–blind placebo–controlled food challenge is widely considered the gold standard for peanut allergy diagnosis, the procedure requires careful medical supervision making it expensive and time consuming. A new set of blood tests for peanut allergy have been developed and the diagnostic performance of these has recently been evaluated.

The research group conducting the evaluation concluded the results obtained using the simple blood tests were accurate enough to diagnose peanut allergy with a high level of precision. Such tests will not entirely replace the use of double–blind placebo–controlled food challenge which will remain useful for certain cases.

Reference: Codreanu et al.2010. International Archives of Allergy and Immunology. Vol. 154 pp. 216-226. DOI: 10.1159/000321108.