Evaluation of allergen-specific IgE antibodies by MAST for the diagnosis of nasal allergy.

Multiple-antigen simultaneous test (MAST) is a new system for detecting allergen-specific IgE antibodies. Multiple antigens can be examined simultaneously in a short period of time by this method. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of this method and to compare the results of MAST with those of RAST and intradermal skin test using 133 serum samples obtained from patients with nasal allergy. The positive rates of the main allergens detected by the MAST system are 56% for Japanese cedar, 31 for Dermatophagoides farinae (DF), 30% for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (DP), 27% for house dust (HD), and 27% for timothy grass. The positive rates of food allergens are very low. An average of 3.5 different allergens can be simultaneously detected in one serum. We have compared MAST and RAST with respect to nine allergens: HD, DF, cat, Japanese cedar, timothy, bahia, sweet vernal, velvet, and ragweed. There are statistically significant correlations between MAST and RAST for all allergens except ragweed, the correlation coefficients in the eight allergens are greater than r = 0.60, and total agreements exceed over 70%. Similarly, there also is a good correlation between MAST and skin test for the allergens: HD, cat, Japanese cedar, timothy grass, and ragweed. These results indicate the clinical usefulness of the MAST system for detecting specific IgE antibodies in patients with nasal allergy.