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Allergy Testing Guidelines
Improve patient care for allergy sufferers
Distinguishing allergy-like symptoms from those of other conditions can be challenging. Primary care providers are often the first ones to accurately diagnose an underlying allergy and determine the next steps for their patients.
We’re here to help you get the information you need to manage your patients. Learn how blood-based specific IgE allergy testing can enable a more refined diagnosis, assess the risk for a systemic reaction and prepare a comprehensive management plan.
CARING FOR YOUR PATIENTS
Bring relief to allergy sufferers with an accurate diagnosis
Many patients and providers may skip allergy testing and move straight to pharmacotherapy to treat allergy symptoms, typically using antihistamines for respiratory symptoms.
Empiric symptom management seldom uncovers the cause of patient’s symptoms and may result in overtreatment, ineffective treatment, repeat office visits and high medication costs.1
Get the support you need with convenient allergy testing options and help improve your patients’ quality of life.
SIMPLE TESTING IN THE PRIMARY CARE SETTING
Identify specific allergy triggers
Is it a cold, an infection, COVID-19 or something else? Overlapping signs and symptoms of allergic and respiratory diseases may complicate diagnosis.
Blood-based specific IgE allergy testing—in combination with a detailed clinical history and physical examination—helps identify an individual patient’s allergy triggers.
With easily interpretable results from Labcorp with blood-based specific IgE allergy tests, you can counsel patients and suggest ways to reduce allergen exposure and manage symptoms.
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A primary care approach to personalized asthma and allergy management: The role of specific IgE testing
Labcorp can help meet your allergy needs
Contact a Labcorp representative to learn more about how we can help meet your allergy testing needs
PROVIDE your patients WITH answers
Address the challenge of overlapping symptoms
Distinguishing between influenza, allergies and COVID-19 can be difficult when patients present their respiratory symptoms, especially with patients that have preexisting respiratory conditions such as asthma.
Give your patients the answers they need. Understand how our diagnostic tools can support your patient evaluations.
| Environmental allergies | Influenza | COVID-19 | |
| Fever | Unlikely Symptom | Likely Symptom | Likely Symptom (may not appear immediately) |
| Cough | Likely Symptom (from post-nasal drip) | Likely Symptom | Likely Symptom |
| Shortness of breath | Unlikely Symptom (possible if patient has asthma) | Likely Symptom | Likely Symptom |
| Headache and muscle aches | Unlikely Symptom (sinus headache possible with allergies) | Likely Symptom | Likely Symptom |
| Fatigue | Likely Symptom (less severe compared to flu and COVID-19) | Likely Symptom | Likely Symptom |
Sources: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Inform symptom management with testing
About 50% of patients with respiratory tract and/or skin symptoms may have an underlying allergy with specific triggers.2
Get the answers you need through blood-based testing to better manage patients’ underlying allergies.
TESTING IMPROVES DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY
Browse the Labcorp allergy test menu
We’re here to help you identify relevant allergens so you can select the appropriate therapeutic interventions for your patients, such as allergen avoidance, medications or immunotherapy.
GET CLINICALLY RELEVANT RESULTS
Provide more value to patients
with allergy testing
Blood-based testing can be conducted in a primary care setting and is applicable to a wide range of patients. With ImmunoCAPTM specific IgE allergen component testing—the gold standard for in vitro diagnosis of allergic conditions3—you can:
- Reveal the root causes of an allergy at the molecular level
- Test for sensitivity to antigenic components, allowing for a more precise way to evaluate an allergy
- Differentiate between species-specific allergy and cross-reactivity
- Assess the risk for more severe, future systemic reactions
Easily order tests—and interpret results
Results from blood-based specific IgE allergy testing includes interpretive reports that help you understand the implications for management.
Beyond the results that display the normal and abnormal levels of specific IgE, the Labcorp Allergy Report provides educational information to share:
- If the abnormal protein levels may be associated with more severe, systemic reactions or a higher risk for anaphylaxis
- If the results suggest that the patient is at risk for clinical reactions to all forms of an allergen
- Relevant sensitization rates and cross-reactivity of proteins
- If any related allergens are associated with the allergy, such as a fruit and tree nut allergy that is associated with birch pollen allergy
- If clinical correlation is required to determine if the patient will react to other foods containing a similar protein due to cross-reactivity
- If you should seek additional tests, such as an oral food challenge or a skin prick test through a specialist referral
Improve patients’ quality of life with simple allergy testing.
References:
- Williams PB, Ahlstedt S, Barnes JH, Söderström L, Portnoy J. Are our impressions of allergy test performances correct? Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2003 Jul;91(1):26-33. doi: 10.1016/s1081-1206(10)62054-6. PMID: 12877445.
- Ahlstedt S, Murray CS. In vitro diagnosis of allergy: how to interpret IgE antibody results in clinical practice. Primary Care Respir J. 2006;15:228-236.
- Crameri, R. In vitro allergy diagnosis – Allergen-specific IgE. In: Akdis, C. EAACI Global Atlas of Allergy. Zurich: European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2014.