Development of Basophil Activation Test (Bat)-Based Point-of-care Diagnostic Tool for Allergies

There is a critical need for point-of-care allergy diagnostic tests that are both accurate and safe. Microfluidic methods have the potential of addressing such needs and to personalize the diagnostics. We aimed to evaluate the difference between venous and fingerprick blood in terms of the total basophil count and % basophil activation. BAT assay was performed in 3 replicates and pair-wise 2 tailed t-test was performed to evaluate the difference in the total basophil count and % basophil activation between venous and fingerprick blood in 4 participants. In all participants, there was statistically insignificant difference in the total basophil count and % basophil activation between venous and fingerprick blood. From 10μL of the whole blood, the mean basophil count between the two types of blood draw in all participants was 112 with p >0.70 and intra-participant %CV <4% among the replicates. Using CD63 as an activation marker, % basophil activation with anti-IgE as a stimulation ranged from 7% to 60% depending on participants. P-values from pair-wise 2 tailed t-test comparing % basophil activation between venous and fingerprick blood were >0.50 indicating statistically insignificant difference between the two types of blood draw. Based on the low %CV among the replicates and p-values from pair-wise 2 tailed t-test comparing venous and fingerprick blood, we have demonstrated that there was statistically insignificant difference in the total basophil count and % basophil activation between the two types of blood draw. This finding will help develop microfluidic method for achieving precision diagnostics in allergies.