Our physicians diagnose using allergy tests, like blood allergy tests. We also treat a multitude of allergy and asthma conditions. Our focus is on disease maintenance and prevention, and our goal is to provide patients with an improved quality of life and allergy-symptom-free living.
- Laboratory allergy testing
- Scratch/prick allergy testing
- Intradermal allergy testing
- Immunotherapy (allergy shots)
- Patient education materials
- Hospital consultations
- 24-hour coverage for emergencies
TESTS VERSUS SKIN ALLERGY
TESTS
These tests measure the presence of antibodies to specific foods or environmental allergens. Both the blood test and the skin prick tests detect allergens. With the skin tests, the result is immediate, but the blood test result will take at least several days to arrive. Unlike the skin prick test, the blood test is not affected by antihistamines and can be performed for people with extensive rashes that prevent using skin tests.
Your allergist should explain the meaning of the blood tests to you. The results are not very helpful for predicting the severity of an allergy. Instead, the test gives information about the chance that there is an allergy. This test is not like a pregnancy test, in which a person is or is not pregnant.
A percentage of all blood tests and skin prick tests will yield a “false positive” result. This means that the test shows positive even though you are not really allergic to the food or environmental allergen being tested.
Despite the chance that an allergy test may be false-positive, blood and skin tests are extremely helpful. This is especially true when the results are interpreted based on your prior reactions to food or pollen.
