Precision and accuracy of commercial laboratories' ability to classify positive and/or negative allergen-specific IgE results
Press Release
Precision and accuracy of commercial laboratories' ability to classify positive and/or negative allergen-specific IgE results
Sheryl L. Szeinbach PhD, James H. Barnes PhD, Timothy J. Sullivan MD and P. Brock Williams PhD Annals of Allergy, April 2001 Volume 86, p. 373
Results
In all, 7,813 tests were analyzed. Concordance among different assays in commercial use with one exception was not good. This was particularly true around the cut-off region where most assays demonstrated high imprecision. The Pharmacia CAP System¿ used by two different laboratories demonstrated highly comparable results with good precision. Some assays were reproducible but not accurate. Others were neither reproducible nor accurate.
Conclusions
The results of this study indicate that not all commercial laboratories/assays for specific IgE provide reproducible and accurate data. Significant potential for misdiagnosis was detected for some reported results. Methods were identified that do give sensitive, accurate, and reproducible results.