Perspectives in Allergy Diagnosis

Recently, progress has been accomplished in several fields of allergy diagnosis. Evaluation of the immediate and especially of the late phase reaction by telethermography now enables better quantitative evaluation and is particularly useful for pharmacological studies. Comparative studies of various techniques for the serological determination of allergen-specific IgE have shown that these techniques have reached some limits: they represent a help but never an absolute key to diagnosis. An interesting new approach is the development of new cellular tests, such as the determination of sulfidoleukotrienes produced by blood basophils primed with cytokines (IL-3) and challenged by various basophil agonists. Results of such assays seem to be of interest both for allergic and pseudo-allergic diseases.