Abstract:
Serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) assays to food specific IgE (s-IgE) are useful tools for the confirmation of clinical suspicion of food allergy. However, the specificity of these assays is poor given that sensitization is much more common than clinical food allergy. Therefore, the use of broad panels to assess sensitization to multiple foods often leads to overdiagnosis and unnecessary food avoidance. Unintended consequences that may occur as a result include physical harm, psychological harm, financial cost, opportunity cost, and even worsening of existing health care disparities. Although current guidelines recommend against the use of s-IgE food panel testing, these tests are widely available and frequently used. To limit the negative impacts of s-IgE food panel testing, further work is needed to effectively spread the message that these food panels may cause unintended harm to patients and families.
摘要:
血清免疫球蛋白E(IgE)对食物特异性IgE(s-IgE)的测定是确认临床怀疑食物过敏的有用工具。然而,鉴于致敏比临床食物过敏更常见,这些检测的特异性较差.因此,使用广泛的小组来评估对多种食物的敏感性通常会导致过度诊断和不必要的食物回避。因此可能发生的意外后果包括身体伤害,心理伤害,财务成本,机会成本,甚至加剧现有的医疗保健差距。尽管目前的指南建议不使用s-IgE食品面板测试,这些测试广泛可用且经常使用。为了限制s-IgE食品面板测试的负面影响,需要进一步的工作来有效传播这些食品小组可能对患者和家庭造成意外伤害的信息。