[A novel diagnostic method for allergy "LUCICA HRT"].

We developed a novel glass microfiber-based histamine release test (HRT) which is characteristic of response of basophil leukocyte to allergens in vitro. It allows the determination of 20 allergens (10 for inhalation allergy, and the other for food allergy) at the same time using a small amount of whole blood. For 158 patients of inhalation allergy and 135 patients of food allergy, they were evaluated by HRT, CAP-RAST, skin test, and provocation test. The concordance of HRT, CAP-RAST, and skin test were 78%, 72%, and 62% in inhalation allergy, and 84%, 71%, and 81% in food allergy, respectively. The specificity of HRT, CAP-RAST, and skin test were 63%, 37%, and 19% in inhalation allergy, and 92%, 63%, and 83% in food allergy, respectively. The positive predictive value of HRT, CAP-RAST, and skin test were 79%, 71%, and 63%, respectively. The false positive ratio of HRT (14%) was lower than that of CAP-RAST (42%). The sensitivity of CAP-RAST was higher than that of HRT. In addition, we experienced a case of patient who showed significant improvement by treatment. At initial stage, not only the symptoms were erythema and scratching but also HRT, CAP-RAST, and skin test resulted in positive. Four months later, he had no allergic symptoms, HRT resulted in negative, but CAP-RAST and skin test resulted in still positive. From these results, we concluded that CAP-RAST is good for screening of etiological allergens and that HRT is a useful diagnostic method for the confirmation of a clinical allergy.