From owner-diagnostics@net.bio.net Wed May 31 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!world!decwrl!tribune.usask.ca!rover.ucs.ualberta.ca!news.ucalgary.ca!acs4.acs.ucalgary.ca!sjszarka From: Steven Joseph Szarka Newsgroups: bionet.diagnostics Subject: Help Needed Understanding Allergy ELISA Results Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 12:22:15 -0600 Organization: The University of Calgary Lines: 52 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: acs4.acs.ucalgary.ca Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Several members of my family have had ELISA tests done to screen for blood IgG4 and IgE against a list of potential food allergens. The results were presented in tabular form with a numerical values attached to each food sample. The results are then divided into 4 columns depending on the numerical rating: 1. essentially no detection 2. low (10-50) 3. intermediate (50-300) 4. High (300-3000) To help understand what foods (all, certain, or none) should be avoided I have the following questions: 1. Does any amount of detectable IgE indicate a food allergy or is there a cut-off (eg. only those in the high column)? If there is a cut-off; is it arbitrary or physiologically based? 2. I assume the RAST (Radioactive equivalent?) is more sensitive; is this higher sensitivity necessary to identify all allergies? 3. Would continual exposure to a low reactive food item increase the IgE signal so that eventually it moves into the 'high' category and becomes a problem (assuming the 'low' foods are presently not a problem)? 4. Based on the experience of people who perform these tests; what is the ELISA pattern generally seen in the population? Do most people show: i. no reaction ii. low reaction to many items iii. a high reaction to a few items combined with either i. or ii. 5. Is the response to question 4 different for children compared to adults? Thanks to all those who can offer information Steve _______________________________________________________________________ Steven Szarka Botany Division Dept. of Biological Sciences Email: sjszarka@acs.ucalgary.ca University of Calgary FAX: (403) 289-9311 2500 University Drive NW Phone: (403) 220-7907 Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4 _______________________________________________________________________ .