J Asthma Allergy Clin Immunol.  2001 Oct;21(5):918-925.

Evaluation of multi-allergen dipstick (Allergodip(R)) as a screening test in allergy patients

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The Allergodip(R) multi-allergen screening test is a simple method for measuring serum-specific IgE to common inhalant allergens simultaneously. The dipstick contains nine separate allergen pads including D. pteronyssinus, Alternaria, cat epithelium, dog epithelium, English plantain, mugwort, birch, rye and six-grass mixture pollen extracts, as well as positive and negative controls. This study was performed in order to evaluate sensitivity and specificity of this test in comparison to skin prick test. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We compared the results obtained by skin prick test (PT) to those obtained by Allergodip(R) test (AT) in 30 patients with various allergic diseases. The skin reactivity was presented as allergen to histamine ratio (A/H) and results of the AT test were assessed visually and classified into Allergodip(R) class 0-4.
RESULTS
Compared with PT, results of AT gave a sensitivity of 55.3% and a specificity of 93.8% when the A/H > OR = 3 was considered a positive response for PT. The agreement rate between positive PT and positive AT to each antigen was 82.6% in D. pteronyssinus, 82.9% in Alternaria, 71.1% in dog epithelium, 57.2% in mugwort pollen, 57.2% in birch pollen, 49.9% in grasses mixture pollen, 23.6% in cat epithelium and 6.7% in rye grass pollen, respectively. Significant correlations were noted between PT and AT classes in D. pteronyssinus, Alternaria, dog epithelium, mugwort pollen, birch pollen, and in grasses mixture pollen (p < 0.05, respectively), but not in cat epithelium or rye grass pollen.
CONCLUSION
We concluded that Allergodip(R) test is useful in screening serum-specific IgE antibodies against multiple allergens at one time.

Keyword

skin prick test; Allergodip(R); serum-specific IgE; sensitivity

MeSH Terms

Allergens
Alternaria
Animals
Antibodies
Artemisia
Betula
Cats
Dogs
Epithelium
Histamine
Humans
Hypersensitivity*
Immunoglobulin E
Lolium
Mass Screening*
Plantago
Poaceae
Pollen
Secale
Sensitivity and Specificity
Skin
Allergens
Antibodies
Histamine
Immunoglobulin E
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