Skin prick testing does not reflect the presence of IgE against food allergens in adult eosinophilic esophagitis patients: A case study

Toral A. Kamdar, Anne M. Ditto, Paul J. Bryce*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Skin prick testing is widely used to predict the presence of allergen-specific IgE. In eosinophilic esophagitis patients, who frequently exhibit polysensitization and broad reactivity upon skin prick testing, this is commonly used to aid avoidance recommendations in the clinical management of their disease. We present here the predictive value of skin prick testing for the presence of allergen-specific IgE, in 12 patients, determined by immunoblot against the allergen extracts using individual-matched serum. Our results demonstrate a high degree of predictive value for aeroallergens but a poor predictive value for food allergens. This suggests that skin prick testing likely identifies IgE reactivity towards aeroallergens in adult eosinophilic esophagitis but this is not true for foods. Consequently, IgE immunoblotting might be required for determining food avoidance in these patients.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number16
JournalClinical and Molecular Allergy
Volume8
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 17 2010

Funding

Acknowledgements Support: PJB was supported by funds from the Food Allergy Initiative and by NIH grant 1R01AI072570.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Molecular Biology
  • Immunology and Allergy
  • Immunology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Skin prick testing does not reflect the presence of IgE against food allergens in adult eosinophilic esophagitis patients: A case study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this