Allergy Skin Prick Testing |
| It is widely used and strongly recommended test throughout the world for finding out the allergy causing substance (Allergen). Because it is Economical, Speedy, Specific, Practically Painless, Reproducible, Reliable, done by Allergy Specialist himself in presence of patient & relative.Expensive Equipments always with some machine errors are not used and above all it is recommended by All Standerd Allergy Text-Books over any other test. |
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| Preparation of the Patient |
Avoid anti histamines, anti allergic drugs for minimum 48 hours e.g. fexofenadine (Allegra), cetrizine, levocetrizine, loratidine, ebastatine, chlorpheniramine maleate, cough syrup etc.
Avoid Beta-blockers like ephedrine, deriphylline, adrenaline, salbutamol, terbutaline, steroids also for 48hrs. Inhalers and nasal spray to be avoided for 8 hrs. Avoid heavy meals & excercise prior to the test, but patient shouldn't be on empty stomach. Light breakfast is preferable. No body lotion or sun screen lotion to be applied over skin of arm & forearm where usually testing is carried out. Patient should come with relative after taking prior appointment with allergy specialist in skin prick testing for allergy treatment in Ahmedabad |
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| Procedure |
First of all patient is thoroughly explained regarding the method. He is reassured that practically there is no pain. This test is carried out in small kids also. Now, skin of arm & forearm is properly sterilised with spirit or alcohol. Markings with a pen are done over the skin so that allergens can be identified later on. Now adjacent to marking a drop of that perticular allergen extract is put and with a sterilised lancet the skin is pricked through the drop in one gentle sweeping motion in such a way that no blood comes out. |
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| Reading |
It is taken after 15 minutes of pricking & wiping out the solution.Here two measurements are taken, redness (Erythema) and swelling (odema) measured in mili-meters and compared with those of normal saline (negative) & histamine (positive).There are Shivpuri's criterias to standerdise the reading. Accordinly allergy is graded as -ve,+(mild),++(moderate), +++(severe) and ++++(very severe).. |
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