allergy blood test

allergy blood test,

a blood test used to measure serum immunoglobulin E, which is an effective method of diagnosing allergy and of specifically identifying the allergen. This test can be helpful when the results of an allergy skin test are questionable, when the allergen is not available in a form for dermal injection, when the allergen may incite an anaphylactic reaction if injected into the patient, or when skin testing is particularly difficult (for example, in infants or patients with dermographia or widespread skin disease).

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Patient discussion about allergy blood test.

Q. how can i point my finger on what kind of allergy do i have? should they inform me in after the blood test?

A. Diagnosing the substance that cause allergy (especially the more subtle skin allergic reactions) can pose a challenge to the doctor, and usually done based on clues from the patients complaints in addition to skin testing (attaching suspected substances to the skin for several days and examining it for the development of allergic reaction).

Blood tests (e.g. RAST) can be performed but usually are not the first line of diagnosis.

You may read more here:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/allergy.html