Studies on Skin Sensitivity to Various Allergens in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Using Skin Prick Test

Abstract

Skin prick test is one of the more important diagnostic tests against allergic diseases, it uses a synthesized allergic extracts from different allergens. In this study skin prick test was done on 83 allergic persons and 20 controls (54 male and 49 female). The test was done in the Allergic Clinic in the King Abdulaziz University Hospital with 9 different allergens which were isolated from Jeddah city. The used allergens were extract of 2 species of house dust mite, extract of house dust and extracts of 6 species of identified fungi. The extracts were used in the skin prick test and compared with the same commercial allergen extracts, imported from Omega company, Canada. The results revealed a significant difference between the two results and the Canadian extracts were better than the Saudi extracts. Conclusion: From the over mentioned results could concluded that the Saudi allergens able to be applied and gave the valuable results if compared with the imported Canadian allergens which isvery expensive using skin prick test. Also the Saudi allergens need more studies to standardize to give promising economic impact results.