[Clinical usefulness of histamine release test in determining allergens in food hypersensitivity]

We examined the clinical usefulness of three diagnostic tests including the histamine release test, RAST and prick test in determining which of a total of 349 allergens were responsible for individual cases of food hypersensitivity. The subjects were 42 children (mean 3.3 years old). When compared with the results of the offending allergen confirmed by elimination and provocation test, each diagnostic test showed a fairly good correlation in percentage agreement and negative agreement, but there was poor correlation in positive agreement (histamine release test 58.1%, RAST 62.8%, prick test 48.8%). False positive results were more frequently observed in RAST (12.6%) as compared with the histamine release test (4.0%) and prick test (2.3%). McNemar's analysis demonstrated that the histamine release test, but not RAST or the prick test, was matched the diagnosis by elimination and provocation test (alpha = 0.30). These results suggest that the histamine release test is more clinically useful than RAST or the prick test in the diagnosis of food hypersensitivity.