Premium
Clinical evaluation of CAP System and RAST in the measurement of specific IgE
Author(s) -
Pastorello E. A.,
Incorvaia C.,
Pravettoni V.,
Marelli A.,
Farioli L.,
Ghezzi M.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
allergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.363
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1398-9995
pISSN - 0105-4538
DOI - 10.1111/j.1398-9995.1992.tb00665.x
Subject(s) - immunoglobulin e , immunology , medicine , allergen , radioallergosorbent test , immunopathology , asthma , allergy , antibody
We investigated the diagnostic value of a new in vitro test, Pharmacia CAP System (Pharmacia Diagnostics AB, Uppsala, Sweden), for the quantitative measurement of allergen‐specific IgE antibodies by comparison with RAST in 2 groups of patients, 71 atopic and 48 non‐atopic. In the last 20 years RAST has supplied a good diagnostic tool, but this test presents some problems, the main one being sensitivity. The new test has a solid phase able to bind even very small amounts of specific IgE and an anti‐IgE tracer with very low cross‐reactivity with other immunoglobulins, thus presenting more favourable conditions. From the analysis of our results, Pharmaeia CAP System gave higher sensitivity (94% compared to 88% of RAST) with no loss of specificity (96% for both tests). The reliability of these results is ensured by the proper selection of patients who were all suffering from pollinosis and were clinically diagnosed as certainly hypersensitive to a single pollen. A positive trend was found between severity of asthma and levels of specific IgE for timothy. Pharmacia CAP System appears to identify a larger number of atopic patients than RAST.