[Clinical evaluation of whole blood histamine release test simultaneously testing multiple allergens--correlated with...

We compared the efficacy of the novel histamine release test (HRT), which allows the determination of many allergens at the same time using a small amount of whole blood, with other conventional allergen diagnostic tests. HRT and RAST were both performed along with bronchial provocation tests (BPT) on 44 bronchial asthma patients in whom the etiologic allergen could not be determined by either intracutaneous tests (ICT) or ophthalmic response tests (ORT). The HRT uses a microtiterplate on which glass fibers have 10 kinds of allergens affixed. The histamine release ability at 6 different concentrations of each kind of allergen was examined. The concordance of HRT with respect to BPT was the highest at 82% in comparison with RAST at 66%, ICT at 55% and ORT at 60%. With each of the allergens, HRT had the highest concordance with BPT. On the other hand, RAST, ICT and ORT showed different results depending on the allergens. The positive predictive value of HRT was the highest at 76% compared with RAST at 59%, ICT at 51% and ORT at 64%. From these results, we concluded that HRT is a more useful diagnostic method for the confirmation of a clinical allergy than other conventional diagnostic methods.