All issues > Volume 39(8); 1996

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1996;39(8):1130-1138. Published online August 15, 1996.

Availability of IgE MAST for Diagnosis of Asthmatic Children

Gwi Sook GS Kim¹, Hyung Jo HJ Jung¹, Soo Kyung SK Lee¹, In Kyung IK Kim¹, Ho H Sung¹, Chang Hee CH Choi¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Seoul Adventist Hospital, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Purpose
: The Skin prick test is simple and cheap in diagnosis of allergic diseases. So the skin prick test has been widely used as the initial diagnostic method of IgE-mediated allergic diseases with the merit of fast detection of causative allergens. But the skin test has some difficulties in application for the infants and young children. IgE MAST(multiple antigen simultaneous test) and IgE RAST(radioallergosorbent test) are representative in vitro diagnostic tests in allergic diseases. IgE MAST has several merits, such as cheap price, simultaneous detection of many allergens, and needlessness of gamma counter, but it has been known to have less sensitivity and specificity. We performed this study to know the differences between the availability of IgE MAST and that of IgE RAST in allergic patients who were diagnosed by clinical findings and skin prick test.
Methods
: We have studied 35 asthmatic children (over 3 years of age) who visited allergy clinic from September 1993 to May 1995. All of them were positive in skin prick test on one more allergens among 6 allergens(D.p, D.f, house dust, dog, egg, ragweed). IgE MAST and IgE RAST were evaluated simultaneously.
Results
: The results were as follows 1) Sensitivity of RAST was 87.1% in D.p, 87.1% in D.f, 68% in house dust and the specificity of RAST was 94.1%, 97.1% and 87.5% respectively. 2) Sensitivity of MAST was 90.3% in D.p, 93.5% in D.f, 80% in house dust and the specificity of MAST was 94.1%, 94.1% and 85% respectively. 3) Total sensitivity of RAST was 70.5% and that of MAST was 73.2%, but there were no significant differences between them(p>0.05). 4) Total specificity of RAST was 91.4% and that of MAST was 89.9%, but there were no significant differences between them(p>0.05). 5) The stronger positive skin reaction, the higher sensitivity and specificity of the two in vitro tests.
Conclusion
: There was no significant differences between the two in vitro tests for the diagnosis of asthmatic children, and the both test results correlated well. IgE MAST system is easier, faster and has more cost benefit than IgE RAST. So we conclude that the MAST system is available as a screening test in the diagnosis of allergic diseases.

Keywords :MAST, RAST, Skin prick test, Allergic disease