Role of in vitro testing in food allergy.

Oral food challenges remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of food allergy. Nevertheless, the allergy workup is based on the presence of a clinical history, which is evocative of an immune-allergic reaction, and the first assessment is usually the performance of skin prick tests. Based on these results, allergists are used to evaluate the presence of serum-specific IgE, which are today the most commonly prescribed in vitro test for the evaluation of a possible food allergy. Other in vitro tests include the basophil activation test, that is becoming more and more employed by clinicians and not only by researchers, and the evaluation of serum IgG4, which is still an issue of debate in the allergy community. The present paper reviews the use of these in vitro tests for the diagnosis of food allergy.