Allergy Skin Tests

Allergy Skin Tests

With hay fever, the most common thing you are told is to avoid your triggers. But what if you don’t know what the triggers, how are you supposed to avoid them? How do you find out what they are?

Allergy skin tests are designed to help expose whether or not a suspected allergen is actually what is causing the allergic reaction. To gather information on what could be a possible suspected allergen is through the medical history.  During the medical history some questions that may be asked include: How long have you had the allergy? Where do you live? How long do the symptoms last for? Where do you work or what are some environmental exposures?

After gathering the information, the suspected allergen will then be introduced in one of three ways- a skin prick test, skin injection test, and patch test.

            Skin Prick Test- is done with a lancet injected different allergens. The results usually come in about 15 minutes. It can be done with as many as 40 different substances to see if the allergies are from pollen, mold, pet dander, dust and even food allergies. If a skin prick test is positive, there will be a skin response This could be a raised, red itchy lump- somewhat like a mosquito bite.

            Skin Injection Test- a test that, like the skin prick, injects a small amount of allergen extract into your skin. The difference is that instead of a lancet, it is used with a needle to be a little deeper as an intradermal test. In about 15 minutes, there will be signs of an allergic reaction- this test isn’t very common for hay fever like the skin prick test, but more for allergies to venoms or specific medications.

            Patch Test- tests to see if there is an allergic reaction by not injecting an allergen, but instead applying it to a patch, which will be placed on the skin. Like the injection test, this isn’t very common for hay fever, but more for contact dermatitis, such as latex or preservative allergies. The patch will be worn for 2 and irritation will indicated a positive test.  

All of these tests are used in order to pinpoint what your allergies are in order to avoid them. This means may not be necessary for everyone, but more for those who really need to know, are more susceptible, and have very severe allergies. Talk to your doctor about if this interests you to see when/how you can receive this testing. 

Immunotherapy- A Medication Alternative

Immunotherapy- The Medication Alternative

Pills aren’t working? Are those alternate therapies not doing the trick? Or are you just sick (physically and mentally) of your symptoms being so intense and irritating every day or allergy season?

These are just some of the reasons why many patients venture to the care and treatment of hay fever through immunotherapy.

What even is immunotherapy though?

Immunotherapy is treatment targeted often to type I hypersensitivity, which uses desensitization therapy. Also, usually works best with hay fever patients. How it works is through the involvement of environmental control of external allergens in addition to the titrated pharmacologic exposure to them as well. With environmental control, a plan has to be made to decrease the exposure to the specific allergen(s). The pharmacologic desensitization process involves injections of the allergen (antigen) regularly through a course of time. This usually will last anywhere from months to years depending on the extent and progress. Throughout the time period, the dosages of allergen will be increased as tolerated. This will hopefully cause a change in the immunoglobins so that there will be an increase of IgG and IgA blocking antibodies as opposed to the abundance of IgE..

However immunotherapy doesn’t always work and may not be a complete treatment to allergy symptoms.  Also it has been reported that the relief to certain grasses and pollens usually last about 4-5 years.

Some considerations before getting involved

If you are thinking about getting immunotherapy keep a couple of things in mind. Such as the commitment it will take -the years of having to come in for the shots. Also it is an expensive process- you must weigh the costs of this with the costs of the medications you normally use.  Immunotherapy is not a definitive treatment and does not yield the same results for everyone.  Age is an important consideration- immunotherapy shots are usually not given to children under five and to older adults (65+ depending on medical status). Lastly, there are some medication conditions that may be present to prevent you from receiving immunotherapy. These include immunodeficiency diseases, recent heart attack or unstable angina, current use of beta blockers. 

Remember if you are considering this to ask your physician about any concerns or questions you may have.