What are different types of allergies testing?
Allergy testing is usually performed by testing the skin or blood to the presence of an allergen response. In modern medicine, three main types of allergies are used: leather testing, elimination and radioallergosorbent (rast) testing. Tests performed on the skin are more common than laboratory work on the blood, because skin testing is less expensive and somewhat more reliable than a blood test. There are other testing methods in addition to the above, such as amazingly simple but effective methods used by naturopathic doctors.
In the skin test category, three types of tests are commonly performed. The first is called the skin patches test, in which a small pad is moistened with a solution of the allergen person stuck to the skin for 24 to 48 hours. If the patient is allergic to the substance, an allergic reaction is known as contact dermatitis. Testing allergies by this method is relatively reliable, but other, Faxis also fashery stern methods.
The skin prick test is performed by placing several drops of allergen in the solution of the person's skin. The needle is then used to scratch or prick the skin enough so that the allergen can enter it. If a person is allergic, a red area develops on the skin. The intradermal test works in a somewhat similar way. In this method of allergy testing, the allergen solution is injected in small amounts into the skin.
In this way, more than one allergy can be tested. One possible disadvantage of intradermal methods is that it is significantly more sensitive than a skin prick test and can sometimes be false positive. This means that the test results will look as if there is an allergy when it is not really.
When allergies to food allergies, the method of elimination of allergies testing is often used. Within the elimination method, suspicious allergens are eliminated from the person's diet for weeks and then introduce each other again. AllergIE on food is detected if an allergic reaction occurs shortly after the introduction of a certain meal. The elimination method can only be used to test allergies for life -threatening.
If the patient suffers from serious reactions to unknown allergen, blood testing is usually a preferred method. Rast test is one type of blood testing used in this case. Blood tests measure the levels of antibodies present in the blood that are produced as part of an allergic reaction. There are only a few rast tests compared to the number of allergies that can be detected by leather testing.