Foods eaten daily
Vegetables are part of the daily diet and are present in most dishes, so it is almost impossible to associate symptoms with a specific product by eye - the reaction looks like a constant background. The panel helps highlight the culprit. Carrots and potatoes cross-react with birch and wormwood pollen, and in patients with hay fever, the symptoms of these vegetables increase during the pollen season. Tomato is a food with a high histamine content and can cause pseudoallergic reactions - clinically similar to allergies, but without the participation of IgE; in such cases, the analysis will be negative, which is also important information and changes tactics. In addition to a food reaction, garlic often causes contact dermatitis in people who work a lot with it in the kitchen.
Blood test instead of skin test
Determination of specific IgE in the blood has important advantages over skin tests: it can be carried out during an exacerbation, while taking antihistamines, with severe dermatitis, when the skin is unsuitable for testing, and in young children. There is also no risk of a systemic reaction, since the allergen is not introduced into the body.
The panel format allows you to immediately test a group of related allergens in one blood draw - it is cheaper and more informative than testing each one separately.
How to read the result
- class 0 - no antibodies detected
- class 1 - low level, clinical significance is questionable
- grades 2–3 - moderate level, reaction is likely
- grades 4–6 – high and very high level, reaction is very likely
The main rule of interpretation
The presence of specific IgE means sensitization - the readiness of the immune system to respond, but not the allergy itself. A diagnosis is made only if laboratory data coincide with real symptoms after contact with this allergen. That is why you should not exclude a product from the diet only on the basis of analysis, without clinical manifestations - especially in children.