Patients' satisfaction with diagnostic drug provocation tests and perception of its usefulness

Although still controversial, drug provocation tests (DPTs) are considered by many as the gold standard for diagnosis of drug hypersensitivity. No studies have addressed the opinion of patients submitted to DPT. We aimed to determine patient satisfaction with diagnostic DPT and their perception of its usefulness.

Surveys were supplied to patients submitted to diagnostic DPT in 3 different drug allergy clinics which used the same diagnostic protocols for drug hypersensitivity evaluation. Seventy-three patients (33.6%) were enrolled in Porto (Portugal), 102 (47%) in Montpellier (France) and 42 (19.4%) in Vilnius (Lithuania). The patients filled in a written questionnaire within 15 days after the diagnostic procedure, and satisfaction was assessed on a 1 (very unsatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied) score.

A total of 217 surveys were collected; 144 female patients (66.4%). The most prevalent studied reactions were cutaneous (70.1%), but 17.9% of the patients had had a systemic reaction. β-Lactam antibiotics were the main culprit drugs (44.3%) tested in all centres and 25.3% of the patients had a positive DPT. No patients were unsatisfied (8.8% were neither unsatisfied nor satisfied and the others were satisfied or very satisfied). The level of satisfaction did not depend on the results of the DPT; 207 (95.4%) believed DPTs were useful and almost all the patients would recommend DPTs to others.

Most patients were satisfied with DPT for diagnostic purposes. Satisfaction with the procedure was independent of the results of the provocation tests and did not depend on the country.