Allergic diseases are important concern of public health. A reliable diagnosis is of utmost importance for the management of allergic patients both when
immunotherapy is planned and when the treatment is essentially based on the avoidance of the
allergy source. However, the available diagnostic systems sometimes fail to detect specific
IgE antibodies thus impairing the correct diagnosis. The traditional test systems are generally based on the use of
protein extracts derived from the allergenic sources whose composition is very variable and cannot be standardized. The development of a new methodology combining the so-called allergenic molecule-based diagnosis with the multiplex microarray technology and allowing the analysis of multiple purified
allergens in a single test represents an important improvement in
allergy diagnosis. In addition, the biochemical and immunological characterisation of individual
allergens has provided new insights into the understanding of
allergen-
IgE recognition that could be exploited for further improvements of
allergy diagnostic tests.