Abstract
Peanut allergy prevalence has increased in developed countries over the last few decades in the frame of the allergy epidemics, currently affecting 1–2% of children. While less frequent in developing countries, its prevalence is rising as these countries adopt a more westernized lifestyle. There is no curative treatment for peanut allergy at present so patient management relies on peanut avoidance, which requires an accurate diagnosis. Recent progress in peanut allergy diagnosis was made with the introduction of component resolved diagnosis that allows the assessment of IgE specific to individual peanut allergens. Component-resolved diagnosis needs to be interpreted in the context of clinical data but overall increases the diagnostic accuracy, as described in the typical cases that we present. Novel diagnostic tools have been proposed recently, such as the basophil activation test, mRNA expression and resonance magnetic evaluation of biomarkers.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Department of Health via the NIH research comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy’s & St Thomas’ National Health Service foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. None of the authors has any relevant conflict of interest with regard to the present paper. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.