Epithelial or dandruff allergen for the diagnosis of dog allergy by RAST?
Clin Allergy, 1979/9;9(5):429-35.
PMID: 115618
Abstract
When used for screening by the RAST technique, dog epithelium provided too few positive results (29.2%) compared with dog dandruff (58.8%), cat epithelium (53.6%) and horse dandruff (52.2%). However, dog dandruff can provide an unexpectedly high incidence of positive RAST results (45.2%) in sera from patients with an allergic history to cat or horse, but not to dog. Dog dandruff allergens were found to cross-react with some cat or horse serum proteins in about 25% of such patients. We conclude that dog dandruff is preferable to epithelium for screening by the RAST technique, but if emotional issues involving a family pet arise then confirmation by a trial separation is likely to be more convincing than a provocation test with a possibly non-specific allergenic extract.
MeSH terms
Allergens; Animals; Cats; Dogs; Epithelium; Hair; Horses; Humans; Hypersensitivity; Immunodiffusion; Immunoglobulin E; Radioallergosorbent Test
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