Intermethod comparison of detection performance for allergen-specific IgE antibodies between ImmunoCAP and IMMULITE and agreement with skin prick testing

Abstract

Učestalost alergijskih bolesti u posljednjih 20-30 godina u dramatičnom je porastu, posebno kod djece. Razlog trenda porasta još uvijek nije poznat. Poznato je da alergijska bolest ima nekoliko faza: senzibilizaciju, manifestaciju simptoma, perzistenciju i remisiju. Moderna medicina teži prevenciji, sprječavanju progresije bolesti i dijagnosticiranju bolesti u najranijim fazama. Ključni dio dijagnostike alergijskih bolesti je otkrivanje alergena koji izazivaju reakciju. Danas se dijagnostika alergijskih bolesti provodi in vivo i in vitro testovima. Osnovni in vivo test je kožni ubodni test koji mjeri kožnu reakciju na specifični alergen apliciran u kožu. Osnovni in vitro testovi mjere razinu specifičnog imunoglobulina E u uzorku seruma. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je usporediti rezultate mjerenja specifičnih IgE protutijela mjerenih metodama ImmunoCAP i IMMULITE, te rezultate usporediti s rezultatima kožnog ubodnog testa na iste alergene. Obradom uzoraka iz selektirane i neselektirane skupine ispitanika uspoređene su navedene metode. Rezultati su pokazali da su ImmunoCAP i IMMULITE metode usporedive i približno jednako osjetljive. Metoda IMMULITE pokazala je viši stupanj slaganja s rezultatima kožnog testa. Obje metode su valjane u rutinskoj dijagnostici alergijskih bolesti, a niti jedna metoda nije dostatna niti idealna u dijagnostici alergijskih bolesti.Prevalence of allergic diseases has been in dramatic increase over last 20-30 years, especially in children. The reason of this increasing trend is still unknown. It's known that allergic disease has several phases: sensibilisation, symptoms manifestation, persistence and remision. Modern medicine tends to prevent, to preclude progression of the disease and to diagnose disease in the earliest phases. A key part of diagnosing allergic diseases is detection of allergen that causes reaction. Today, diagnostics of allergic diseases is carried out by in vivo and in vitro tests. General in vivo test is a skin prick test that measures skin reactions at specific allergen injected into the skin. General in vitro tests measures the level of specific IgE in a sera sample. The goal of this research was to compare the results of measurements of specific IgE antibodies measured by ImmunoCAP and IMMULITE methods, and to compare that results with the results of skin prick test on the same allergens. We compared mentioned methods processing selected and nonselected group of samples. The results showed that IMMULITE and ImmunoCAP are comparable and approximately equally sensitive methods. The IMMULITE showed better correlation with the skin prick test results. Both methods are valid in the routine diagnostics of allergic diseases, but no method is sufficient nor ideal in diagnostics of allergic diseases