This is an article that appeared in the Montreal Gazette on Saturday.
A highly sensitive allergy test is now available across Canada that can help determine if children have outgrown allergies to peanuts, milk or eggs. The ImmunoCap Blood Test, developed by Pharmacia Diagnostics, detects more than 500 different food, inhalant and occupational allergens. The test is done on blood, instead of the traditional allergy skin tests, which involve needle pricks to insert the allergen under the skin.
"When children have an allergy to food or anything else, their body produces distinctive... antibodies," according to Bruce Mazer, a pediatric allergist at the Montreal Childrens Hospital. "Those antibodies may remain long after the child has outgrown their reactions to allergens and so skin tests can continue to give a positive reaction, even though the person might no longer have symptoms if exposed to the food in question".
The ImmunoCap test not only identifies the antibodies, but also measures their quantity. Doctors can determine whether an allergic reaction is still active based on the number of antibodies found in the blood sample. While it has long been known that children can outgrow milk and egg allergies, a recent study using the test showed that up to 20 per cent of patients also outgrow peanut allergies.
I will definately do more research on this and keep you guys posted.
My daughter was re tested for PA and the skin test with the drops tested negative and I was ready to throw a party - I asked the nurse if she was positive about this because my daughter had tested positive before, so she did a skin test with actual peanut butter and peanuts and this came out positive? Dr. said that it's the same it's simply a different way of doing the test. My daughters only reaction was the first time she ate peanut butter at 11 or 12 months, hives all over and swolen eyes and has never had another reaction since, she is now 2 1/2, but of course we have been being careful.
Anyone have any feed back on this.
Thank you for your discussion of ImmunoCAP Allergy blood test. Information about this test, allergies and resources, is available on [url="http://www.IsItAllergy.com"]www.IsItAllergy.com[/url] and [url="http://www.US.PharmaciaDiagnostics.com."]www.US.PharmaciaDiagnostics.com.[/url] See my posting in the Introduction section of this site. In August, [url="http://www.IsItAllergy.com"]www.IsItAllergy.com[/url] will be updated to include interactive informative sections for consumers and physicians.
Lorraine
Quote:Originally posted by Mommy:
[b]This is an article that appeared in the Montreal Gazette on Saturday.
A highly sensitive allergy test is now available across Canada that can help determine if children have outgrown allergies to peanuts, milk or eggs. The ImmunoCap Blood Test, developed by Pharmacia Diagnostics, detects more than 500 different food, inhalant and occupational allergens. The test is done on blood, instead of the traditional allergy skin tests, which involve needle pricks to insert the allergen under the skin.
"When children have an allergy to food or anything else, their body produces distinctive... antibodies," according to Bruce Mazer, a pediatric allergist at the Montreal Childrens Hospital. "Those antibodies may remain long after the child has outgrown their reactions to allergens and so skin tests can continue to give a positive reaction, even though the person might no longer have symptoms if exposed to the food in question".
The ImmunoCap test not only identifies the antibodies, but also measures their quantity. Doctors can determine whether an allergic reaction is still active based on the number of antibodies found in the blood sample. While it has long been known that children can outgrow milk and egg allergies, a recent study using the test showed that up to 20 per cent of patients also outgrow peanut allergies.
I will definately do more research on this and keep you guys posted.
My daughter was re tested for PA and the skin test with the drops tested negative and I was ready to throw a party - I asked the nurse if she was positive about this because my daughter had tested positive before, so she did a skin test with actual peanut butter and peanuts and this came out positive? Dr. said that it's the same it's simply a different way of doing the test. My daughters only reaction was the first time she ate peanut butter at 11 or 12 months, hives all over and swolen eyes and has never had another reaction since, she is now 2 1/2, but of course we have been being careful.
Anyone have any feed back on this.[/b]