Diagnosis of allergy to peach. A comparative study of "in vivo" and "in vitro" techniques.

In our particular Mediterranean region, extensive plantations of peach trees (prunus persica) give rise to processes of peach hypersensitivity. This datum together with the scarcity of literature and the use of disparate methods of diagnosis prompted us to select the peach as an example of hypersensitivity to a fruit, and to examine the clinical symptoms, skin tests, specific IgE antibodies (RASTR) and histamine release in a group of 25 patients with peach allergy. The results showed a good concordance between clinical history and skin tests (78%) and between RASTR (82%) and histamine release (74%) when comparison was made with the clinical history. The concordance between skin tests and RASTR histamine release was 94%. On the application of a statistical study to the different data collected, and on analysing all the concordances and possible combinations between "in vivo" and "in vitro" tests, the skin tests were not found to be superior to the RASTR (p less than 0.001) or to the histamine release test (p less than 0.001), in terms of peach allergy diagnosis. Both the RASTR and the histamine release test were found to be equally valid (p less than 0.001) in "in vitro" peach diagnosis. These findings demonstrate the perfect and complete diagnosis of peach allergy with the methodology used.