The symptoms of allergies can be mild but quickly escalate to a life-threatening situation. It’s always better to understand what triggers your allergic reaction. If this is the case, you, along with your doctor, will be able to work together to stop your condition from getting worse.
With proper allergy skin testing, you can also reduce your existing symptoms to a considerable level. In many cases, avoiding the allergen( the active agent causing an allergic reaction) is possible, but sometimes it’s not the case.
Most commonly used allergy tests are blood testing and skin prick tests. Generally, an allergic reaction is your body’s response to an allergen. The symptoms developed are an overreaction from being in contact with an allergen for the minimum possible time. In short, your immune system starts getting hay-wire.
How does allergy skin testing determine the cause of allergy?
Skin allergy test Washington will help you decide if you are likely to have an allergy to different allergens. Allergy skin testing is nothing but testing for the presence of immunoglobulin(IgE) in your body. Our body’s immune system usually produces IgE to fight allergens or irritants.
The IgE antibodies can be detected in different ways. Still, the most common is the skin allergy test O’fallon, MO. Children and adults can both easily undergo these tests.
But, your allergy specialist won’t necessarily advise you to go for a skin prick allergy test. You also have the option to choose whichever out of a blood or skin prick test suits your more.
What happens during an allergy skin test, especially a prick test?
The skin, usually the patient’s forearm, is exposed to different allergens. The doctor uses a plastic toothpick-like device to gently scratch the skin’s surface so that the skin absorbs the allergen.
The skin is monitored for the next couple of minutes, generally 15-20 mins, to check whether the allergen develops any localized reaction. If the area where the doctor pricked the skin develops redness, itching, or swelling, the result is positive.
Later, he wipes off the skin and administers an antihistamine to prevent any more discomfort due to the allergen.
You can also read this article: Blood test Vs. Skin Allergy Test To Detect Allergies
How accurate is a skin prick allergy test?
A positive skin allergy test Hermann is reliable at around 50 percent when it comes to identifying the allergens effectively. But a negative result is 95 percent authentic. Positive test results just mean that the patient’s body has made the anti-bodies IgE against a specific allergen.
But this process called ‘sensitization’ is insufficient for a reliable diagnosis. Other than the prick test, the specialist should review your medical history and conduct a physical examination to see if the results are correct.
Young people may display more false positives than the older generation because younger have low exposure to many such allergens. But most of the time, a thorough diagnosis is possible if the doctor is experienced in the field.
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With its qualified and trusted range of allergy skin testing, New freedom Family Medicine has an exceptional record of giving high-quality and authentic test results.
Reach us to know more about your allergies and the causes behind them.