Question: I have on going urticaria for 4 months (started on my hands only for two months, then legs, upper body, face and recently mostly on my arms hands and wrists). My doctor told me it must be from inhaled allergen because ai decelopped chest tightness, breathing problem, headache and nosea with urticaria at work. Prick test with an Allergist revealed Dust mites, cats, dogs, cockloaches, weed and tree pollen. Patch testing at Dermatologist was performed for house hold chemicals and glove additives and cosmetics, they were negative with a couple of doubtful reactions. I was recently diagnosed as Atopy and had numerous skin tissue eosinophils with higly elevated igE. I am taking Allegra/Tagamet for my urticaria treatment. My dermatologist recently suggested to go back to Allergist to identify the cause of my urticaria because he didn't test food and latex. Do I need ImmunoCAP® Specific IgE Blood Test or RAST test? What allergens Doctor can identify from the testing above? Your answer will be greately appreciated. XXXX

Thank you Dr Rahul! I will seek the testing. Do you think RAST is better than ImmuniCap? Or both are the same? I feel that I have more of dust mite and other environmental chemical allergy rather than food because I read an medical literature saying Urticaria from actual food itself is only 1% of populatiom in all urticaria patients, I also read the food containing histamine would aggrevater of urticarica. I will still try to eat one food then add more to see if my Urticaria is better or worse like you said. It was a great advice. Again, I want to know the differnce between RAST and Immuno-Cap and which one is better to evaluate the true allergen in my cas? Well, I don't want to give up my favorite food all at once just yet. Ha hae

Thank you Dr. Rahul! I will try that. Thank you again for your follow up! XXXX