The use of basophil activation test in the diagnosis and monitoring of food allergies in children

Basophil Activation Test (BAT) is a functional test, sometimes referred as "oral test tube challenge". Although component-resolved diagnosis contributed to a significant increase in the sensitivity and specificity of diagnostic tests, none of the currently used methods allows for differentiation between allergic but allergen tolerant patients and patients with symptoms of allergy. Therefore, BAT has clinical application in the diagnosis and monitoring of allergic diseases, including food allergy. This test can also serve as an additional tool for predicting the severity of a clinical reaction and assessing the threshold of reactivity in food allergies. BAT is characterized by very high sensitivity and specificity. The introduction of BAT for everyday clinical use would require the standardization of laboratory procedures and methods of data analysis and clinical validation of the test. Research using BAT requires continuation, primarily to determine its place in diagnostic algorithms.