Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2017;173(2):93-98.
doi: 10.1159/000477442. Epub 2017 Jun 28.

Greater Real-Life Diagnostic Efficacy of Allergen Molecule-Based Diagnosis for Prescription of Immunotherapy in an Area with Multiple Pollen Exposure

Ulbosin Saltabayeva  1 , Victoria Garib, Marina Morenko, Rafail Rosenson, Zhanat Ispayeva, Madina Gatauova, Loreta Zulus, Alexander Karaulov, Felix Gastager, Rudolf Valenta
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Greater Real-Life Diagnostic Efficacy of Allergen Molecule-Based Diagnosis for Prescription of Immunotherapy in an Area with Multiple Pollen Exposure

Ulbosin Saltabayeva et al. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 2017.

Abstract

Background: Allergen molecule-based diagnosis has been suggested to facilitate the identification of disease-causing allergen sources and the prescription of allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT). The aim of the current study was to compare allergen molecule-based IgE serology with allergen extract-based skin testing for the identification of the disease-causing allergen sources. The study was conducted in an area where patients are exposed to pollen from multiple sources (trees, grasses, and weeds) at the same time to compare the diagnostic efficiency of the 2 forms of diagnosis.

Methods: Patients from Astana, Kazakhstan, who suffered from pollen-induced allergy (n = 95) were subjected to skin prick testing (SPT) with a local panel of tree pollen, grass pollen, and weed pollen allergen extracts and IgE antibodies specific for marker allergen molecules (nArt v 1, nArt v 3, rAmb a 1, rPhl p 1, rPhl p 5, rBet v 1) were measured by ImmunoCAP. Direct and indirect costs for diagnosis based on SPT and marker allergen-based IgE serology as well as direct costs for immunotherapy depending on SPT and serological test results were calculated.

Results: The costs for SPT-based diagnosis per patient were lower than the costs for allergen molecule-based IgE serology. However, allergen molecule-based serology was more precise in detecting the disease-causing allergen sources. A lower number of immunotherapy treatments (n = 119) was needed according to molecular diagnosis as compared to extract-based diagnosis (n = 275), which considerably reduced the total costs for diagnosis and for a 3-year treatment from EUR 1,112.30 to 521.77 per patient.

Conclusions: The results from this real-life study show that SPT is less expensive than allergen molecule-based diagnostic testing, but molecular diagnosis allowed more precise prescription of immunotherapy which substantially reduced treatment costs and combined costs for diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: Allergen; Allergen-specific immunotherapy; Allergy; Component-resolved diagnosis; Diagnosis; Economic efficacy; Immunotherapy prescription; Molecular allergology; Skin prick testing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Frequencies of sensitization to tree pollen, grass pollen, and weed pollen as determined by skin prick testing with mixed allergen extracts (a), allergen extracts from single allergen sources (b), or recombinant marker allergens (c) in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis (n = 95).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Valenta R, Duchene M, Vrtala S, Birkner T, Ebner C, Hirschwehr R, et al. Recombinant allergens for immunoblot diagnosis of tree-pollen allergy. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1991;88:889–894. - PubMed
    1. Valenta R, Lidholm J, Niederberger V, Hayek B, Kraft D, Grönlund H. The recombinant allergen-based concept of component-resolved diagnostics and immunotherapy (CRD and CRIT) Clin Exp Allergy. 1999;29:896–904. - PubMed
    1. Hiller R, Laffer S, Harwanegg C, Huber M, Schmidt WM, Twardosz A, et al. Microarrayed allergen molecules: diagnostic gatekeepers for allergy treatment. FASEB J. 2002;16:414–416. - PubMed
    1. Ferreira F, Hawranek T, Gruber P, Wopfner N, Mari A. Allergic cross-reactivity: from gene to the clinic. Allergy. 2004;59:243–267. - PubMed
    1. Canonica GW, Ansotegui IJ, Pawankar R, Schmid-Grendelmeier P, van Hage M, Baena-Cagnani CE, et al. A WAO-ARIA-GA2LEN consensus document on molecular-based allergy diagnostics. World Allergy Organ J. 2013;6:17. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources