Correlation between the Magnitude of Skin Prick Test Reactivity and Pollen-Specific Serum IgE Levels in Patients with Respiratory Allergy

Abstract

Background: For the etiological diagnosis of allergic respiratory diseases skin tests or specific serum IgE determination are used. Objective: To determine the correlation between the extent of reactivity to cutaneous prick tests and the levels of pollen speci c serum IgE in patients with respiratory allergy. Patients and methods: A prolective, descriptive and transversal study was done with patients of both genders, aged 2 to 60 years, who attended for the rst time at the service of Allergy and Clinical Immunology of University Hospital of Puebla, Mexico, with presumptive diagnosis of respiratory allergy. All patients underwent clinical history, skin prick tests with standardized allergenic extracts and quanti cation of pollen speci c serum IgE by chemiluminescence method. We estimated the correlation index r using the statistical method Pearson product-moment correlation coef cient; a value r equal to or higher than 0.70 was con- sidered a signi cant relationship or a high correlation. Results: Nine-one patients were included, of whom 58.2% were female. The diagnoses were: allergic rhinitis (79.1%), asthma and allergic rhinitis (16.5%) and only asthma (4.4%). Only signi cant correlation was found in patients with allergic rhinitis for Rumex crispus (r = 0.702) and in patients with asthma and rhinitis for Ambrosia tri da (r = 1). Conclusion: Only for Rumex crispus and Ambrosia tri da, the skin prick tests or the determination of speci c serum IgE levels are comparable diagnostic methods of allergic respiratory diseases.

Keywords

• alergia respiratoria
• pólenes
• correlación
• IgE sérica específica
• pruebas cutáneas por punción