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Updated: Jul 21, 2025

Basophil Activation Test for Allergy Diagnosis
Published on: May 31, 2021
New arrivals in anaphylaxis to foods
Bianca Olivieri1, Isabel J Skypala2,3
1Department of Medicine, Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology Section, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Purpose Of Review:
More people are excluding wheat from their diet, or turning to a more sustainable diet in which includes meat substitutes or is mainly or wholly plant-based. This increases the availability of new foods and with it the increasing likelihood of novel allergens.
Recent Findings:
There is a growing body of evidence which suggests that allergies to seeds and legumes are increasing potentially due to their use in concentrated form in vegan or health foods. Insects can be a sustainable source of protein, but mealworm could provoke symptoms in individuals sensitized or allergic to shellfish or house dust mite. Novel plant food allergens such as gibberellin-regulated proteins and thaumatin-like proteins are increasingly being reported as significant causes of severe reactions to fruits.
Summary:
these findings make it even more imperative to take a full dietary history to ensure apparent idiopathic anaphylaxis is not in reality due to a novel food, especially in cases where other forms of the food are tolerated. Given the lack of diagnostic tests for these novel foods, a prick-to-prick skin prick test should be performed with the suspected food. There is currently more work needed to define and sequence many of the allergens involved.
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