allergy testing

allergy testing

See Patch testing, RAST, Skin testing.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Patient discussion about allergy testing

Q. What happens when you get an allergy test? My doctor told me that I should have an allergy test done. I have had a friend have an allergy test done and she had a bunch of bumps on her arm. My doctor said it was just a simple blood test. Has the test changed? What should I expect? Is it painful?

A. Today, you can check allergy also with a blood test. What you check is the antibodies that your body manufactures. They extract antibodies from the blood and react it to all sort of allergens and see what happens. Here is a more elaborated explanation about it :
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/allergy/sample.html

Q. How do I diagnose an allergy? I think I’m allergic to something. I’ve been having running nose, sneezing, and even problems breathing every once in a while. How can I find the cause?

A. There can be thousands of materials that you are allergic to. But usually people are allergic to the same things (cats, pets in general, type of foods and so forth..). what you can do is an allergy test- It’ll cover most of the usual things. Here is a video that explains it:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Allergy-Testing-9036

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