Allergies are very common, affecting about one in three people worldwide. To figure out what someone is allergic to, doctors often use a method called the skin prick test (SPT). While useful, traditional skin prick tests can vary a lot depending on how the test is done and who is doing it.
A new device called the Skin Prick Automated Test (SPAT) was created to make this test more consistent and accurate. SPAT performs the skin pricks automatically and measures the size of any reactions digitally. But before it could be widely adopted in clinics, scientists needed to confirm the best "cut-off size"—the minimum size of a wheal that should be considered a positive allergic reaction.
In this study, 75 people were tested: 25 had birch pollen allergies, 25 had house dust mite allergies, and 25 were not allergic. All participants underwent both the traditional and the automated skin prick test. Allergies were confirmed using medical history and a nasal allergen challenge that checks for allergic reactions inside the nose.
We found that SPAT showed equivalent accuracy as the conventional skin prick test. For birch and dust mite allergies, a wheal size of 4.5 mm worked well as a cut-off to indicate a true allergic reaction. This matched earlier research and means the device can be used confidently in real-life medical settings.
Another important finding: measuring the wheals digitally using the SPAT system was just as reliable as using a ruler by hand. This means the whole process can be done efficiently, consistently, and possibly even remotely or asynchronously.
In short, this study confirms that the SPAT device is a trustworthy and innovative alternative to manual skin prick tests. It could help doctors diagnose allergies more reliably—especially in busy clinics or large-scale screenings—by reducing human error and speeding up the process.

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