Allergy diagnostic tests had changed very little in the past 20-30 years, with the technology used in allergy blood test remaining unchanged. However, over the past 5 years, new types of allergy diagnostics tests have started to become available in specialist practice. This includes component allergy testing (also known as Component Resolved Diagnostics). These test provide much more detailed information than previously allergy tests, revealing the amount of allergic antibody being produced by the patient’s immune system to the different component parts of a food or plant allergen, rather than just the overall amount. This extra level of detail provides a clinically useful insight into the risk of allergic reactions, their potential severity and chance of resolution. The new generation of protein micro-array tests (eg ISAC chip) use this technology but also allow for large number of allergy tests to be performed on very small blood samples. Both these new technologies, unavailable to non-specialist doctors, are routinely used in our practice.
Written by
Professor Adam Fox
Date reviewed: March 2021
Adam Fox is a Professor of Paediatric Allergy with over 20 years experience in both the NHS and private sector. Professor Fox is Commercial Medical Director at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and the founding Director of the KCL Allergy Academy, a postgraduate educational programme, which was a finalist at the BMJ Awards in 2018.
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