Diagnostic evaluation of grass- and birch-allergic patients with oral allergy syndrome

Background: Patients with birch and grass allergy often suffer from oral al lergy symptoms when ingesting cross-reacting fresh fruits and vegetables. H owever, fruit and vegetable allergen extracts are often readily degradable or contain clinically irrelevant cross-reacting epitopes, resulting in diag nostic discrepancies when fruit and vegetable allergic reactions are evalua ted. The risk of using nonstandardized fresh food extracts for skin testing may also be of concern. The objective was to compare and evaluate the clin ical utility of selected recombinant grass and birch cross-reacting food al lergens with fresh and commercial melon, hazelnut, and apple extracts. Methods: Thirty-six grass- and or birch-allergic patients and 17 control su bjects consented to participate in the study. All subjects were skin prick tested and had basophil histamine-release tests done with fresh fruits and various extracts of hazelnut, apple, and melon. The diagnosis of oral aller gy syndrome was confirmed by oral challenges. In addition, histamine releas e to recombinant Bet v 1 and Bet v 2, and recombinant Ph1 p 1 and Phl p 2, Phl p 5 was performed. Results: The skin prick test with fresh hazelnut, apple, and melon showed s ensitivities of 0.97, 0.92, and 0.89, respectively. The corresponding speci ficities were 0.78, 0.72, and 0.82, respectively. In contrast, the histamin e-release test with hazelnut, apple, and melon gave sensitivities of 0.87, 0.71, and 1.00, respectively. The corresponding specificities were 0.65, 0. 93, and 0.43. The skin prick test showed excellent negative predictive valu e (> 90%). No added value of recombinant allergen testing was noted. Oral c hallenge did not result in severe systemic reactions, and no systemic react ions were observed with skin prick tests with fresh fruits. Conclusions: The skin prick test showed an almost optimal diagnostic value with a satisfactory sensitivity (> 89%) and excellent negative predictive v alue with fresh fruits. When the skin prick test with fresh nut and apple c annot be performed, histamine release is a diagnostic alternative. Histamin e release with melon showed lack of specificity. This was probably due to e xtensive IgE crossreactivity with pollen, since these patients also respond ed to recombinant Phl p 1 and Bet v 1. Skin testing and challenges with fre sh fruits were safe.