RAST testing questions

My son was skin tested 3 times. Each time he had a horrible welt (17 mm). The third test he severly reacted to the test, with itchy throat, asthma attack, & diarrhea, while we were in the office. The skin prick for cashew showed up negative. He also reacted anaphylactically to that before.

The next time, a year later, he was RAST tested. It showed up negative to peanuts and positive to cashews. They wanted to food challenge...I convinced my son he would be okay. However, he reacted instantly to the smallest amount.

So I must agree with your doctor about RAST not being reliable, but I also don't trust the skin tests (due to cashew showing up negative).

So do most of you have your children tested every year? If so do you have skin or blood test done??
We have a appointment the 17th and I am confused also, on what to request? Blood test or another skin or ? Thanks, Donna

As I said before ds had 3 skin tests and a RAST. The first test was just for PA. The second one was for other foods including tree nuts. The third one was because we suspected sesame as an allergy. Allergist just included nuts those last two times. The allergist wanted to do the RAST the last time also. I finally came to the conclusion that I will never allow him to be food challenged again unless a RAST & skin test shows up negative for three years in a row.

Hi
I dont know the answer to this. My son has only been rast tested. Because he had a reaction to peanut butter the allergist said it was dangerous to skin test him. I believe we did it 3 times. The first was when he was almost 2 for just peanuts, he came out a level 2. I know the last time we did it he was turning 5 about to enter kindergarten, he wa a level 4 for peanuts and 2 for nuts.

I went to 2 different allergist and niether would skin test him for nuts or peanuts.

I dont know iwhen I would do it again though

We Were told they were the most accurate and reliable form!
i was skin tested !
about the cashews... he/she may not B allergic AT THE MOMENT but you can can become allergic later on!

Well , we got our results today, and his peanut test matches his skin test. I don't have the paper in front of me, but allergist said he is very high for peanut (5 out of 6)
a 4 out of 6 for almond, and a 3 out of 6 for cashew. But 0 for walnut [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Oh well....

I also have RAST questions. My daughter had a positive skin test for PA in Feb. but a negative RAST a few days ago. I don't know what to make of this inconsistency. I have heard that the skin test is more accurate but had the RAST done because I heard that it is better for tracking an allergy over time to see if she might be outgrowing it. Any thoughts on inconsistent tests?

I AM VERY CONFUSED ABOUT THE MEANING OF "NUMBERS" ASSOCIATED WITH CAP RAST. THE NUMBERS I HAVE BEEN GIVEN FOR MY SON WERE 12.40 IN 2001, 6.83 IN 2002 AND 31 IN APRIL 2004. THESE DON'T SEEM TO COINCIDE WITH OTHER PARENTS' CAP RAST INFO. POSTED ON THIS SITE. CAN ANYONE CLARIFY THE NUMBERS AND "CLASSES" I KEEP READING ABOUT. UNFOR-TUNATELY MY ALLERGIST DID NOT EXPLAIN THE SITUATION WELL TO ME AND I AM NOW FINALLY REALIZING I NEED MORE INFO. TO KEEP MY CHILDREN SAFE. THANKS FOR ANY INFO AND ADVICE.

Hi , CC's mom-I picked up a copy of my son's results yesterday, maybe I can help.
I am sure different labs have different ways to interpret results but my son's peanut result looks like this :

The % response range dictates what Ige class he is. My son's % response is 5101. That falls into ige class 5 (ige response 2001-6000) . Over 6000 is class 6 (the highest one), according to his report.

(There is also a measurment for kiu/L , but I have no idea about that . It does say >100 is level 6. For this measurement, my son did get >100. )

I hope I could help a little, and not confuse anyone more [img]http://uumor.pair.com/nutalle2/peanutallergy/smile.gif[/img]

Quote:Originally posted by donnag:
[b]So do most of you have your children tested every year? If so do you have skin or blood test done??
We have a appointment the 17th and I am confused also, on what to request? Blood test or another skin or ? Thanks, Donna[/b]
Our dd is only 3 and we've had her tested twice with blood tests as I don't feel comfortable with skin testing as it could be counted as an exposure.

A RAST test shows the likelihood of a reaction and cannot predict the severity that the reaction will be. There are people on the boards with '1' that have had anaphylactic reactions.

I'd highly suggest getting a CAP RAST. It has much less chance of false positives as it is more reliable and consistent than the regular RAST.

My allergist had read a study where they sent the same blood sample to 8 different labs for the reg RAST and they all came back with different results. A month later, they resent it with different results again! The Immuno Cap RAST was 'statistically' consistent every time.

Hope this helps -

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~ SAHM to 3 y/o Kara (PA>100 CAP RAST and TNA level 3) ~

I just wanted to add, my son had the CAP RAST test done....