Reduced intra-subject variability of an automated skin prick test device compared to a manual test.

Respiratory allergies affect a significant portion of the global population and pose a major health and economic problem. The current methods for identifying sensitisation to allergens in symptomatic patients involve skin prick tests and serum-specific IgE analysis along with a detailed medical history. Skin prick tests are preferred due to their cost-effectiveness, immediate results, and better sensitivity-specificity profile compared to extract-based specific IgE analysis. However, there is a need for standardisation and automation of the skin prick test procedure to reduce operator and device-dependent variability.

A study was conducted at the University Hospitals of Leuven to compare a newly developed automated skin prick test called SPAT with the conventional manual skin prick test, SPMT. The study involved 118 healthy volunteers, and the results showed that SPAT exhibited significantly lower variability in wheal sizes compared to SPMT. The wheal sizes were larger in SPAT than SPMT for both control and histamine pricks. The sensitivity and specificity of SPAT were comparable to SPMT. Participants reported less discomfort with SPAT, and no adverse events were reported during the study.Prick failures were less frequent with SPAT compared to SPMT, and the time required to perform SPAT pricks was significantly shorter than SPMT. SPAT also required less histamine solution compared to SPMT.  

The study concluded that SPAT provides increased reproducibility, tolerability, and reduces prick failures compared to SPMT. It is a time-saving and cost-effective instrument for future allergy diagnostics. Further studies will determine the precision of SPAT in detecting allergies to inhalant allergens.

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