Immunology and allergy specialists are calling for shellfish skin prick tests to be standardised, with an analysis showing wide variability in the allergen extracts used in available tests. 

Researchers including paediatric immunologists from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney say skin prick testing (SPT) is often the preferred first-line diagnostic approach.  

But widely used allergen extracts in commercial SPT tests were generally not standardised, limiting the diagnostic value of the results and potentially putting lives at risk. 

“Standardisation of allergen extracts is urgently needed to improve the accuracy and reliability of SPTs,” the authors wrote in a research letter in Allergy.