Diagnosing pollen allergies in the Mediterranean is characterised by many special challenges. The pollen release times of the endemic plants are often parallel and may stretch over the whole year, which makes it difficult to determine the relevant allergens. Moreover, many people are sensitised to several pollen allergens. Together with leading allergy experts from the […]
When antibodies of class IgE against the peanut proteins Ara h2 and Ara h6 are detected in a patient sample, this finding points with high probability to a clinical peanut allergy. After eating a peanut, the binding between IgE antibodies and their target proteins leads to the activation of mast cells. The activated immune cells
In persons with type I allergies, the immune system forms IgE antibodies at first contact with a usually harmless substance (allergen) from the environment, e.g. against certain proteins in pollen, animal hair or food. At every further contact, the binding between the antibodies and the allergen can cause diverse immune reactions, including swelling of mucous
In the current issue of the medical journal Trillium Diagnostik (14(3): 172-173), Prof Dr Rudolf Gruber and Dr Gabriele Egert, experts for laboratory diagnostics, clearly explain the advantages of defined recombinant allergen components which are applied in modern molecular allergy diagnostics. While allergens which are extracted and purified from natural allergen sources always constitute a
Two children, Lisa and Tom, are tested for different food allergies with a skin test by an allergist at the same day, since both children complain about various symptoms such as oral prickling, rashes and nausea. In both cases, the allergy test indicates an obvious immune reaction against peanut extract – a diagnostic agent which
