title: Reproducibility of skin sensitivity using a quantitative skin prick test.
abstract: The reproducibility of repeated quantitative skin prick test titrations was evaluated in seven asthmatic patients tested 2-4 times within 6 weeks. The skin sensitivity was estimated as endpoint titration and histamine equivalent reaction using both 1 and 10 mg/ml histamine dihydrochloride. The histamine equivalent reaction had a significantly higher reproducibility compared to endpoint titration, with a coefficient of variation less than 10% for histamine 10 mg/ml. Further, using this histamine concentration, the deviation in repeated testing was for practical purposes less than 0.5 log step. The same constancy in skin sensitivity was found in one patient tested 3 times and then retested another 3 times 6 months later by a different tester. The results indicate that the quantitative skin prick test and histamine-estimated skin sensitivity have a clinical application in the assessment of pharmacologically or immunotherapy-induced changes in the releasability of skin mast cells.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology; D004306:Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic; D005260:Female; D006632:Histamine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012882:Skin Tests / Q000592:standards*; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D006632:Histamine