Analysis of Polycheck Allergy Results of the Recent Two Years: Comparison with Skin Prick Test and ImmunoCAP

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Multiple Antigen Simultaneous Test (MAST)-immunoblot assay is a practical and economical test, which has been recently introduced nationwide. Authors investigated test efficiency of a MAST-immunoblot assay, Polycheck Allergy (PA). METHODS: A total of 3,153 patients were tested by PA and the results were compared with the results of ImmunoCAP and skin prick test (SPT) in 532 and 75 patients, respectively. The correlation with the lgE results measured by VIDAS was also analyzed. RESULTS: The agreements of PA with SPT were 87.8% in the Inhalant Panel and 89.3% in the Food Panel and the agreement of ImmunoCAP with SPT was 95.2%. The most common allergens giving positive reactions were Dermatophagoides farinae (46.2%) and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (40.0%). SPT taken as a reference, PA compared with ImmunoCAP showed higher agreement (D. farinae, 76.0 vs. 70.7%; D. pteronyssinus, 76.0 vs. 74.4%), sensitivity (D. farinae, 72.7 vs. 68.2%; D. pteronyssinus, 75.0 vs. 71.2%) and specificity (D. farinae, 85.0 vs. 81.3%) except for the specificity for D. pteronyssinus (78.3 vs. 87.5%). The rate of allergen specific IgE positive patients was higher than that of negative patients when total IgE was over 100 kU/L. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that the agreement, sensitivity and specificity of PA were similar to or better than those of the previously established test, ImmunoCAP. The allergen specific IgE results of PA were in correlation with total IgE. PA may be used for testing allergen specific IgE to diagnose and treat allergic diseases.