Reliability diagnosis of FAST in allergic rhinitis. Correlation with RAST, nasal provocation and prick test.

Not much data is available on the reliability diagnosis of IgE FAST, in comparison with other "in vitro" and "in vivo" techniques. The motive of this study was to evaluate FAST sensitivity in patients with rhinitic allergies, comparing it with RAST and the prick test. Thirty-four patients, monosensitized in 11 cases for pollen, in 16 for mites and in 7 for moulds were studied. Ten patients with negative nasal provocation were used for the control group. In a total of 133 sera, there was class concordance between FAST and prick test in 59.39% of the cases, with a r = +0.41 and p less than 0.001 correlation coefficient. Corcordance of FAST and RAST for a total of 135 sera was 65.18%. Concordance in those who had nasal positive provocation was 87.65% for FAST, 75.04% for RAST and 92.85% for prick. From our experience with FAST, in patients with allergic rhinitis for the pneumoallergens evaluated, we conclude that this test constitutes an alternative "in vitro" diagnosis in the cases indicated. We found that its advantages were its low cost in the way of human and economical resources, its greater reliability in comparison with RAST, its simple administration and it being harmiess.