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Allergic diseases of the (upper and lower) airways, the skin and the gastrointestinal tract, are on the rise, resulting in impaired quality of life, decreased productivity, and increased healthcare costs. As allergic diseases are mostly tissue‐specific, local sampling methods for respective biomarkers offer the potential for increased sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, local sampling using noninvasive or minimally invasive methods can be cost‐effective and well tolerated, which may even be suitable for primary or home care sampling. Non‐ or minimally invasive local sampling and diagnostics may enable a more thorough endotyping, may help to avoid under‐ or overdiagnosis, and may provide the possibility to approach precision prevention, due to early diagnosis of these local diseases even before they get systemically manifested and detectable. At the same time, dried blood samples may help to facilitate minimal‐invasive primary or home care sampling for classical systemic diagnostic approaches. This EAACI position paper contains a thorough review of the various technologies in allergy diagnosis available on the market, which analytes or biomarkers are employed, and which samples or matrices can be used. Based on this assessment, EAACI position is to drive these developments to efficiently identify allergy and possibly later also viral epidemics and take advantage of comprehensive knowledge to initiate preventions and treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The EC-funded Euro Prevall project examined the prevalence of food allergy across Europe. A well-established factor in the occurrence of food allergy is primary sensitization to pollen. Objective To analyse geographic and temporal variations in pollen exposure, allowing the investigation of how these variations influence the prevalence and incidence of food allergies across Europe. Methods Airborne pollen data for two decades (1990-2009) were obtained from 13 monitoring sites located as close as possible to the Euro Prevall survey centres. Start dates, intensity and duration of Betulaceae, Oleaceae, Poaceae and Asteraceae pollen seasons were examined. Mean, slope of the regression, probability level ( P) and dominant taxa (%) were calculated. Trends were considered significant at P < 0.05. Results On a European scale, Betulaceae, in particular Betula, is the most dominant pollen exposure, two folds higher than to Poaceae, and greater than five folds higher than to Oleaceae and Asteraceae. Only in Reykjavik, Madrid and Derby was Poaceae the dominant pollen, as was Oleaceae in Thessaloniki. Weed pollen ( Asteraceae) was never dominant, exposure accounted for >10% of total pollen exposure only in Siauliai ( Artemisia) and Legnano ( Ambrosia). Consistent trends towards changing intensity or duration of exposure were not observed, possibly with the exception of (not significant) decreased exposure to Artemisia and increased exposure to Ambrosia. Conclusions This is the first comprehensive study quantifying exposure to the major allergenic pollen families Betulaceae, Oleaceae, Poaceae and Asteraceae across Europe. These data can now be used for studies into patterns of sensitization and allergy to pollen and foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]