Skin prick test is considered as a gold standard for the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. person who is allergic to some of the antigens will show a hypersensitivity to the allergens that are tested and he will also have an increased specific IgE for the same allergens in his blood too.In skin prick allergen test, we are going to clean the patients arm, then put various allergens that we want to test and we will slightly scratch on the area we want to test the allergen. The allergen just enters the epidermis and the test should be evaluated with a positive control which is the histamine and a negative control, which is the saline. The quality of the allergen is very crucial for the skin prick allergy test. The test is read after 15 – 20 minutes and positive result is regarded when the wheel and flare reaction comes as more than 3mm than of the negative control. The allergens that are usually tested in his kind of a respiratory panel are the aero allergens, which could be the dust mite, pollens, fungal spores, or animal dander. The total IgE is very nonspecific for the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. But we can find out specific IgE’s for a particular allergen which could be of significance from an invitro blood test. But the advantage of the Skin prick allergy test over specific IgE invitro testing is that skin prick allergy test is much more quicker and you get the reading within 15 – 20 minutes it is less expensive than an invitro test. It is very close to our nature and the patient can also have a visual look of the allergy what he is developing to.
