
94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Comparative and Clinical Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1551207
The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Canine atopic dermatitis (CAD) is an important cause of quality of life in dogs and their owners. There are different diagnostic tools to evaluate sensitization to allergens in CAD; however, there is little information to evaluate the clinical usefulness of these tests. A systematic review aiming to assess the accuracy of allergen sensitization tests in CAD patients was performed. The search was planned, executed, and reported following PRISMA standards. The OVID®/MEDLINE, PubMed®,SciELO, and Redalyc databases were searched to find relevant studies comprising “diagnostic method” OR test OR diagnosis OR method OR diagnostic OR paraclinic=) AND (atopic= OR hypersensitivity* OR allergen* OR “allergic reaction*” OR atopy) AND (dermatitis OR eczema OR scratching OR prurit= OR erythema OR rash OR edema) AND (canine OR dog* OR bitch* OR pupp*) search. Defined relevant articles were systematized, and content was analyzed via Atlas TI Scientific Software Development Software. The groups of diagnostic tests included the intradermal test (IDT), serologic-specific allergen test (SAT), skin prick test (SPT), and patch test. Combining the results from all the search engines and deduplicate elimination yielded 928 eligible citations published between 1963 and 2024, and the 72 articles that met the eligibility criteria were included in the qualitative synthesis evaluating SAT (n= 36), IDT (n= 37), SPT (n= 2), and patch tests (n= 1) reporting the use of 136 different allergens. Favrot’s clinical criteria were applied in 41.6% of the studies (30/72), with no previous consensus on the case definition for CAD. The results of the review indicate that there is little information available to establish the diagnostic performance of the tests, which makes difficult to make a recommendation regarding their use. In this systematic review they were identified gaps in current knowledge that suggest the need for future research to standardize allergenic extracts, define cutoff points in serological tests, and consider environmental, geographic, and demographic variables. These findings provide a solid basis for improving the diagnosis and management of CAD and guiding future research in this field. Further studies are needed to adequately establish the diagnostic performance of the tests and their actual clinical usefulness.
Keywords: Allergens1, Canine atopic dermatitis2, diagnostic methods3, IDT4, IgE5. SAT6. SPT7. Systematic review8 Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, Data curation
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Morales-Romero, Gonzalez-Dominguez, Sánchez-Caraballo, Correa-Valencia and Maldonado-Estrada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Juan G. Maldonado-Estrada, Medical Director Veterinary Hospital University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Research integrity at Frontiers
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.