Clinical value of component‐resolved diagnostics in peanut‐allergic patients

Introduction As replacement for the oral food challenge, decision‐points for sensitization test have been established, but suboptimal sensitivity and/or specificity, as well as regional differences, have reduced the clinical usability. IgE toward specific peanut protein components has been reported to be of value, but data on correlation with clinical data are sparse. Our aim was to correlate IgE values with the outcome of peanut challenges. Method Data from 175 positive and 30 negative peanut challenges in patients aged 1–26 years were retrospectively correlated with the levels of specific IgE to peanut and peanut components (Ara h 1–3, h 8, and h 9). Result The best correlation between IgE and clinical thresholds was found for Ara h 2 (ρs = −0.30, P 1.63 kU/l yielded a specificity = 1.00, with a corresponding sensitivity of 0.70. Symptom severity elicited during challenge correlated significantly with the levels of Ara h 2 (ρs = 0.60, P