title: Pros and Cons of Clinical Basophil Testing (BAT).
abstract: We review basophil testing by flow cytometry with an emphasis on advantages and disadvantages.
  
  
  
  There are many tools available to assess the presence and severity of allergic diseases in patients. For 50 years, peripheral blood basophils have been used as tools to study these diseases. It is a very accessible cell that binds IgE antibody and secretes the classical mediators responsible for the symptoms of allergic reactions. In the last decade, an even more accessible methodology, using flow cytometry, has been developed to enhance the ability to use basophils for both mechanistic and clinical diagnostics. Basophil testing has been included in diagnostics for different forms of allergies as well as to monitor disease status. A variety of studies have begun to establish both precise methods and their clinical relevance for disease diagnosis, but there remain some important questions on how to take optimal advantage of the behaviours of basophils.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. hjh@clin.au.dk.|Department of Respiratory Diseases and Allergy, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark. hjh@clin.au.dk.
authors.forename: Hans Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.affiliation: Departments of Immunology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Dermatology/Allergology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Edward F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Knol
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory and Allergy Service, IBIMA-Regional University Hospital of Malaga, UMA, Malaga, Spain.
authors.forename: Lina
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mayorga
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology-Allergology-Rheumatology, University of Antwerp and Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sabato
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Allergy, Division of Asthma, Allergy & Lung Biology, King's College London, London, UK.|Children's Allergy Service, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Alexandra F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology and Allergy Biederstein, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eberlein
authors.affiliation: Immunology and Allergy Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet, and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nopp
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, USA.
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: MacGlashan
mesh_terms: D001491:Basophils / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology*
keywords: Allergy; BAT; Basophil granulocyte; CD63; Chronic urticaria; Mast cell