Allergy Blood Test
Allergy is an abnormal overreaction of the body's natural immune mechanism to substances that are usually not harmful to the human body. This substance is called an allergen.
What caused Allergy?
Allergens are substances that can cause an allergy. They come from a variety of sources. Common types of allergen sources include tree & grass pollen, house dust mites, animal hair/fur, food and insect venoms.
An allergen source can be broken down into individual allergen components which are generally protein molecules that are the actual target of the immune system. An allergen source is always a mixture of both strongly and weakly allergenic components.
Advantages of Allergy Blood Test compare to others Allergy test:
- More convenient and less invasive, as it only requires one needle prick and does not expose you to allergens.
- More accurate and reliable, as it is not affected by skin conditions, medications, or age.Â
- Able to detect allergies that may not appear on skin tests, such as delayed reactions or rare allergiesÂ
What is CCD Marker?
The term CCD is the abbreviation of cross-reactive carbohydrate determinant. Some patients develop specific IgE antibodies against these carbohydrate structures, which generally have no clinical relevance. This makes identification of the allergens that actually cause the symptoms difficult.
A test with CCD marker is very useful to detect the presence of cross-reactivity and thus prevent a potential false positive of the test result.
The measurement of specific IgE antibodies against CCD is useful and essential:
- When clinical symptoms disagree with the specific IgE resultÂ
- When there are many positive specific IgE to plant, food, and inhalation allergens (multiple sensitisation)Â
- In the detection of positive specific IgE against bee and wasp venom extracts (double positivity)
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