Comparison study between MAST CLA and OPTIGEN.

BACKGROUND

The MAST-CLA system (Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics, Inc., Mountain View, CA) is an in vitro diagnostic test for the simultaneous determination of specific IgE to different allergens. Recently, a new generation of MAST-CLA was developed (OPTIGEN; Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics). The purpose of this study was to determine the performance of these two tests for the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis.

METHODS

Suspicious allergic rhinitis patients were divided into four groups and their medical records were reviewed: group 1 patients were tested with the MAST-CLA and skin-prick tests (251 patients), group 2 patients were tested with the OPTIGEN and skin-prick tests (319 patients), group 3 patients were tested with the MAST-CLA and CAP (104 patients) tests, and group 4 patients were tested with the OPTIGEN and CAP tests (270 patients). The correlation between MAST-CLA and OPTIGEN to skin-prick and CAP tests was determined.

RESULTS

The positivity percentage of MAST-CLA results was higher than with skin-prick and CAP tests, and the results for the OPTIGEN test were comparable with skin-prick test and CAP. This suggests that the MAST-CLA test might have a slightly higher rate of giving false positive results. The OPTIGEN test correlated better with the skin-prick test and CAP.

CONCLUSION

The OPTIGEN test performed better than the MAST-CLA test for diagnosing allergic rhinitis.