Comparison of three multiple allergen simultaneous tests: RIDA allergy screen, MAST optigen, and polycheck allergy

We compared the performances of 3 Multiple Allergen Simultaneous Test (MAST) assays: RIDA Allergy Screen (R-Biopharm, Darmstadt, Germany), MAST Optigen allergy system (Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics, Mountain View, CA), and Polycheck Allergy (Biocheck GmbH, Munster, Germany). Forty sera that tested positive with the RIDA Allergy Screen (20 for food and 20 for inhalant panel) were subjected to MAST Optigen and Polycheck Allergy. For 26 available sera with discrepant results, 62 ImmunoCAP allergen-specific IgE tests (Pharmacia Diagnostics, Uppsala, Sweden) were performed. Percent agreements (kappa value) were 87.6% (0.59) and 91.3% (0.60) between RIDA and MAST; 89.9% (0.55) and 88.3% (0.46) between RIDA and Polycheck; and 86.8% (0.51) and 90.6% (0.61) between MAST and Polycheck. Compared with ImmunoCAP, agreements (kappa value) of inhalant and food panels were 51.7% (0.04) and 33.3% (-0.38) for RIDA; 60.7% (0.27) and 81.8% (0.59) for MAST; and 65.5% (0.26) and 45.5% (0.07) for Polycheck. The agreements between RIDA, MAST, and Polycheck and ImmunoCAP-positivity were 45.7%, 88.2%, and 28.6%, respectively, and the agreements for ImmunoCAP-negativity were 37.0%, 51.9%, and 88.9%. MAST Optigen showed better agreement with ImmunoCAP than other assays in the food panel. Better sensitivity of MAST Optigen and better specificity of Polycheck Allergy were suspected.