title: A simplified screening test for the diagnosis of allergy.
abstract: The Quidel allergy screen is a relatively rapid (less than 2 hours) multiallergen dipstick method for detecting specific immunoglobin E antibodies in serum. It was developed to answer the need of primary physician nonspecialists in allergy for a convenient in-office screening test for diagnosing allergy. The new test was evaluated against the benchmark diagnostic skin tests and the radioallergosorbent serologic tests for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and technical feasibility in an office setting. It was found that while the Quidel allergy screen lacks the specificity of the standard tests, its overall sensitivity, as defined by the percentage of patients with positive skin reactions who also tested positive with the Quidel screen (68%), its ease of use, and its rapidity warrant its consideration as a screening tool for confirming a possible case of allergy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Imam
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Novey
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Orgel
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: E O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Meltzer
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Ziering
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D008403:Mass Screening; D011852:Radioallergosorbent Test