Cellular Allergy

Where specific IgE fails to demonstrate absolute diagnostic reliability, especially in more complex reactions such as drug, venom or food allergies BÜHLMANN has the solution- The complete Cellular Allergy diagnostics package. Flow2 CAST^®, the routine friendly flow cytometry test, together with BÜHLMANN high quality allergens, are the obvious additions to sIgE and the unique tool for non-IgE mediated drug allergy diagnosis.

Allergy assessment is significantly improved and, in so called “CAST^® only” cases, enabled using the BÜHLMANN Cellular Allergy diagnostics package.

In spite of a tremendous progression in allergy diagnostics over the last decade’s allergologists are still confronted with the problem of unclear results calling for a confirmation with an independent method. Traditional tools for allergy assessments are patient medical history, specific IgE, skin and provocation tests. All of these have limitations and often poor predictive values. Additional in vivo tests, particularly provocation tests bear a risk of fatality from anaphylaxis and therefore can not be recommended in daily practice. What they need are additional tools to assess allergy diagnosis.

BÜHLMANN offers the solution. The BÜHLMANN CAST^® Assays are at the forefront of this development, as BÜHLMANN is the only company, specialized in the development and validation of cellular allergy assays plus allergens. We offer a complete package for allergy diagnosis based on two technology platforms, ELISA (CAST^®-2000) and flow cytometry (Flow2 CAST^® and  Flow-CAST^®), and to include over 120 standardized allergens. Focus of these tests is to measure in vitro allergen specific activation of basophils, respectively release of leucotriens and expression of CD63.

With the latest generation of flow cytometry based CAST^® Assays, the Flow2 CAST^®, we offer a routine friendly basophil activation test which allows easy, fast and quick results and reaches high predictive values for non-IgE mediated drug allergy diagnosis – your obvious addition to sIgEs. You will just like it.
A series of clinical studies demonstrate today the importance of CAST^® Assays, to be integrated in a diagnostics work up in significant, specific fields of allergy:
Bee/Wasp: CAST^® Assays support clinical diagnosis, particularly in patients with unclear clinical history, controversial sIgE, skin or prick test results or double positivity, but also for the identification of the true culprit insect, thanks to sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 95%. Recently, CAST^® Assays have been identified as promising tools to follow up specific immunotherapy (SIT) also.

Drugs: Beta-lactam Antibiotics and NSAIDs: The European Network for Drug Allergy (ENDA) suggests in a series of multicentric studies that the application of CAST^® Assays significantly reduces the need for potentially dangerous and costly drug provocations and a clear superiority to sIgE testing.

Food Additives: The diagnosis of food additive intolerance is known to be very difficult as non immunological reactions appear to be the primary cause for the patients’ symptoms. CAST^® Assays are the only valuable tools measuring intolerance by the in-vitro reaction.

Food: The CAST^® Asssays are powerful tools for the discrimination and the identification of cross reactivity between clinically relevant and irrelevant IgE that can not be detected with sIgE.