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Assessing the value of skin prick tests
Author(s) -
LESSOF M. H.,
BUISSERET P. D.,
MERRETT J.,
MERRETT T. G.,
WRAITH D. G.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
clinical and experimental allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.462
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1365-2222
pISSN - 0954-7894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2222.1980.tb02088.x
Subject(s) - medicine , allergy , dermatology , clinical history , allergen , intoxicative inhalant , fish <actinopterygii> , radioallergosorbent test , immunoglobulin e , allergic reaction , immunology , toxicology , antibody , fishery , biology
Summary Skin test materials vary in their potency and specificity. Although 3 mm reactions are often regarded as diagnostic of a type I allergy, a study based on 100 allergy clinic patients with food intolerance showed that thirteen out of fifteen patients with a 3 mm reaction to common inhalant allergens had no RAST‐detectable allergen‐specific IgE. Three millimetre reactions were significant for milk and egg extracts. Food intolerance was clinically demonstrable in six out of seven patients giving a 4 mm skin reaction and in ten out of thirteen with a 3 mm reaction. There was, however, a ‘clinically false positive’ reaction of 3 mm or more in 3.8% of allergy clinic patients for milk and 2.8% for egg. In fifteen out of nineteen patients with a clinical diagnosis of fish allergy, the diagnosis was supported by a skin test reaction of 5 mm or more. However, seven patients with no history of intolerance to fish gave a 4 mm reaction to the same extract. Reactions of less than 5 mm were thus unhelpful clinically.