A clinical guideline incorporating Ara h 2 sIgE with SPT in a diagnostic
algorithm reduces number of OFCs and cost of peanut allergy diagnosis in
a clinical setting: a cost comparison analysis.
Abstract
Background: Peanut allergy prevalence is reported at 3% and consumes a
significant volume of oral food challenges (OFC) in the diagnosis of
food allergy. Compared to skin prick test (SPT) or sIgE to whole peanut,
sIgE to peanut component ara h 2 has greater diagnostic accuracy.
Two-step algorithms involving both SPT and ara h 2 sIgE demonstrate
increased accuracy in diagnosis in modelled studies, resulting in fewer
OFCs. We aimed to determine whether there is a similar reduction in OFCs
in a clinical uptake of this two-step diagnostic algorithm compared to
using peanut SPT alone and perform a cost comparison between these two
approaches. Methods: In 2015, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Australia
(RCH) implemented a clinical guideline using peanut SPT followed by sIgE
to ara h 2 if the SPT was between 3 and 8mm and clinician is considering
an OFC for a patient with suspected peanut allergy. We performed an
audit of patients presenting to RCH allergy outpatient clinics for
assessment of peanut allergy to determine the outcomes and potential
reduction in need for OFC using the two-step algorithm. We used modelled
data of the same patient cohort to estimate the number of OFCs that were
avoided as a result of a high (≥1.0kUA/L) ara h 2 sIgE. A cost
comparison was performed comparing the two-step algorithm to using
peanut SPT alone. Costs were constructed based on unit prices from
hospital admissions, medicare data and individual data on allergic
reaction types, applying a health system perspective. Results: 8826
patients presented to RCH for peanut allergy assessment between May 2016
and August 2020. Of these, 9.2% proceeded to an OFC, with positive
results seen in 20.1% and anaphylaxis in 1.1%. 42.0% (364/867) of
patients with a SPT between 3-8mm followed the diagnostic algorithm
appropriately. Of those who followed the diagnostic algorithm, there was
a reduction of 27.8% in OFCs as a result of an elevated
(>1.0kUA/L) ara h 2 result. The diagnostic algorithm
pathway resulted in a 32.05% cost reduction compared to the modelled
SPT-only pathway. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that the number of
patients proceeding to OFC gives greatest impact to the overall cost of
diagnosis, rather than the cost of the OFC or ara h 2 itself.
Conclusions: A combined algorithm incorporating peanut SPT followed by
sIgE to ara h 2 resulted in a reduction in patients requiring oral food
challenges. There is also a cost saving for this approach. There is a
large proportion of patients that did not follow the algorithm, and this
may relate to clinical history.