COMPARATIVE-STUDY BETWEEN SKIN PRICK TESTS AND TOP-CAST ALLERGEN LEUKOCYTE STIMULATION IN DIAGNOSIS OF ALLERGIC STATUS

A recently developed CAST-ELISA method was applied to determine allerg en-induced leukocyte stimulation. This method is based on the measurem ent of sulfidoleukotriene secretion by peripheral blood leukocytes pre viously stimulated with specific allergen in the presence of interleuk in 3. 24 patients allergic to different aeroallergens and some food al lergens were included in this study. Subjects received no medication 2 weeks before the testing. Leukocytes were isolated by dextran sedimen tation. After incubation with allergen at two concentrations, the cell s were centrifuged and the concentration of sulfidoleukotrienes in sup ernatant was determined. The results were expressed in pg/ml after sub fraction of values of spontaneous sulfidoleukotriene production in por tions incubated without allergen. We observed a wide range of sulfidol eukotriene secretion upon allergen stimulation. Concentrations of leuk otrienes ranged from 0 to 5780 pg/ml at lower allergen concentration a nd from 210 to 5680 at higher allergen concentration. On the basis of observed results, we conclude that the better allergen concentration i s the higher one because there was no appearance of negative cell stim ulation. In the lower allergen concentration we observed negative resu lts in two cases. Sixteen healthy control subjects were also included in this study. Eleven subjects had negative skin prick tests (SPT) as well as CAST results. In 5 healthy subjects with positive SPT, we also observed positive CAST results in 4 persons. In 1 healthy person with positive SPT results, CAST results were negative. We conclude that TO P-CAST allergen is a valuable mixture of different aero and food aller gens for determining the allergic status in patients with suspicious a llergic status, although it cannot differentiate between health and di sease states.