Evaluation Of the Basophil Activation Test in Child Egg Allergy Diagnosis

In china, the prevalence of food allergy in in preschool children was about 7%. Diagnosis of food allergy is mainly based on a combination of clinical history, clinical manifestations and related supplementary examinations, including skin prick testing (SPT), serum specific IgE testing (sIgE), and oral food challenge (OFC). Although OFC is the gold standard for allergy diagnosis, it is rarely conducted in clinic for the low safety. Until now, serum specific IgE assays against allergen are the most commonly used in vitro diagnostic approach in China. However, specific-IgEs are sensitive, but not specific for diagnosis of food allergy. Moreover, food allergy could not be excluded when sIgE results are negative (<0.35KU/L). Thus, more accurate and safer test is needed. BAT was shown to have good accuracy for food allergy diagnosis. BAT is an ex vivo functional assay that measures by flow cytometry the degree of basophil activation after stimulation with an allergen. However, experimental strategies for BAT reported in the literatures are different. Some research even used 12 kinds of antibodies to identity basophils. In previous study, the investigators established BAT using 4 kinds of antibodies. Basophils could be distinguished well from other cells. In this study, children aged 4 months to 6 years who visit pediatric and emergency department, and are suspected with egg allergy will be included in study. Detailed information about clinical history and manifestations will be collected. Serum sIgE to food and BAT will be detected. The proposed study intends to analyze sensitivity and specificity of the established BAT according to the clinical comprehensive diagnosis results, and evaluate its efficacy to diagnose food allergy in children.