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Skin Prick Food Allergy Tests - Large Flare But No Wheal?

greenbeanie

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greenbeanie Enthusiast
greenbeanie
Posted

Does anyone know if it's meaningful to get large flares but no (or little) wheals on skin prick food allergy tests? Before all this business with celiac testing, I had allergy testing done. I've had many environmental allergies since I was a kid (to pollens, dust, animals), and those skin prick tests gave me clear results. But my food tests were strange. For a bunch of them, I had large flares (22mm or more) but with either no wheals or wheals smaller than the histamine reference prick. The allergist ran IgE blood tests on a handful of these to try to get clearer about what was going on, and the blood tests were all negative. She concluded that I don't have any food allergies.

For other foods, and for the saline control prick, I got no wheals or flares, so it's not just that my skin is over-reactive in general. And I really can't draw any reliable conclusions from how I feel after eating, since I pretty much always feel sick. Maybe once I've been gluten-free for longer my reaction to the other foods will be clearer, but for now I don't want to cut out a whole bunch of other foods if it's not really necessary. The ones that gave me the big flares are all very common things (celery, carrot, apple, potato, orange, onion), and avoiding them all plus gluten would be quite restrictive. I did not react at all to other nightshades or to other things in the same families (like garlic or tomato), which makes it even more puzzling.

Has anyone else had weird allergy test results like this and figured out what it means? My allergist was not helpful - she just said to avoid whatever foods I feel bad eating (but again, I really can't tell right now). My endoscopy showed visible redness in my stomach, and biopsies of my esophagus showed inflammation. I have not seen the actual pathology report or had my follow-up appointment with the GI yet, but I think my intestinal biopsies didn't show clear signs of celiac or someone would have told me that by now. Gluten is obviously a huge problem for me, whether it's celiac or not, but I just can't tell whether it's the root of all the problems.

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kareng Grand Master
kareng
Posted

From what I have heard around here, those skin tests aren't very accurate for food allergies.

 

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shadowicewolf Proficient
shadowicewolf
Posted

From what I have heard around here, those skin tests aren't very accurate for food allergies.

 

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Only if used by themselves. If you get a hive and have symptoms otherwise, then, to my understanding, you are allergic to whatever item it is.

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