Identifying Low-Risk Beta-Lactam Allergy Patients in a UK Tertiary Centre

There are marked geographical as well as temporal differences in patient sensitization profiles to β-lactams (BL).

To determine the utility of skin test reagents and identify a cohort of patients where skin testing can be safely omitted in a cohort of patients referred to a UK tertiary referral center.

A retrospective study of the clinical characteristics of 1092 patients referred for BL allergy testing was analyzed using multivariate regression analysis. The effectiveness of skin test reagents was also evaluated.

Multivariate logistic regression identified that a history of anaphylaxis (odds ratio [OR] 10.98, P = .001) and the patients' recall of the index drug (apart from ampicillin and meropenem, OR 3.51-12.43, P < .05) were independent predictors of type I BL allergic status and a time of less than 1 year elapsed since index reaction significantly increasing the odds of a patient with a history of anaphylaxis, having a type I BL allergy (OR 38.66, P = .003). An absence of anaphylactic severity, unknown name of the index drug and a reaction occurring more than 1 year before testing, has a negative predictive value (NPV) of 98.4%, which was similar to the NPV of skin testing of 98.9% for type I BL allergy. The NPV of skin testing with benzylpenicillin + amoxicillin ± index BL was similar with (98.9%) or without (98.1%) the use of benzylpenicillin polylysine and minor determinant for type I BL allergy.

We identified a "low risk" cohort of patients where the history is of similar reliability to skin testing in predicting nonallergic status for BL allergy.