SCREENING OF ATOPIC ALLERGY IN 5-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN - A COMPARISON OF THE DIAGNOSTIC PROPERTIES OF PHADIATOP-PEDIATRIC AND PHADIATOP

The ability of Phadiatop Paediatric (PP), Phadiatop (P), mixed-food RAST (MF), and the combination of P and MF to identify children with atopic allergy was evaluated among 193 children who had a family history of atopic disease, and who had an average age of 5 years. If atopy is defined as the presence of at least one positive skin prick test (greater than or equal to 2+) to common food and/or inhalant allergens, P had a sensitivity of 86%, a specificity of 94%, and an efficacy of 92%. These figures were somewhat better than the results with PP. However, when P was combined with MF, the sensitivity increased to 89%, but at the expense of lowered specificity (83%) and efficacy (84%). If the tests were related only to clinical signs/symptoms of atopic disease, the sensitivity and efficacy were, at maximum, 63% and 81%, respectively. There was a discrepancy between the results of P and PP in 9% of the children. One explanation of this discrepancy may be that PP seems to be incapable of detecting children with respiratory allergies induced by pollens from birch and related trees. The results indicate that in 5-6-year-old children P should be preferred to PP and to the combination of P and MF for atopy screening, at least in places where birch pollen is a common allergen.