Thermo Scientific ImmunoCAP Peanut Component Tests from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Portage, Mich, are now available through Quest Diagnostics.
Quest is the first national diagnostic information services provider to broadly offer diagnostic services based on the ImmunoCAP tests to physicians, broadening patient access.
Under a nonexclusive agreement, the two companies will also co-market ImmunoCAP test services provided by Quest Diagnostics’ clinical laboratories. Additional terms were not disclosed.
Unlike skin scratch testing, these tests measure a patient’s Immunoglobulin E, or IgE, sensitization to five important individual peanut proteins, called allergen components. Some of these components are known to be responsible for severe allergic reactions in sensitized patients. Physicians may use this information to identify patients who have a good chance of passing an oral food challenge and to develop personalized treatment plans tailored to a patient’s individual risk.
Peanuts and tree nuts are the most common cause of fatal and near-fatal allergic reactions to food in the United States. A Quest Diagnostics Health Trends study published in 2011 found that peanuts were the most common source of food allergen sensitization in children ages 6 to 18 years of age, affecting nearly one in four tested by the company.
While some peanut-sensitized patients may react to components in the peanut that can cause severe and potentially life-threatening reactions, other patients may react only to components that usually cause only mild localized reactions. Results from peanut component testing can help to stratify a patient’s risk and identify those patients likely to pass an oral food challenge.
Other ImmunoCAP blood allergy tests available to physicians through Quest Diagnostics include component testing for milk, egg, and respiratory allergens.
[Source: Thermo Fisher Scientific]
