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 language | English (US) |
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Article number | 16 |
Journal | Clinical and Molecular Allergy |
Volume | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 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