Allergies- The Hidden Threat to Immune System
Pollen, dust, and food-induced respiratoryallergies and autoimmune diseases in India are getting worse with climate change. Allergies are often triggered by specific substances and can even turn serious within minutes if left untreated. Allergy testing could help in revealing what initiates your allergy manifestation and help your physician and doctor in choosing the most suitable treatment for your condition.
Types of allergy blood tests
Allergy blood tests can measure and detect how much allergen-specific antibodies is present in your blood. Once you get in touch with a trigger for your allergy, also called an allergen, your immune system starts to make antibodies against it.
These antibodies inform the different cells present in your body to discharge particular chemicals. These chemicals can cause symptoms of an allergy. IgE or Immunoglobulin E is an antibody that is linked strongly to the allergic response of your body.
Allergy blood tests generally screen for a minimum of ten of the most typical allergy triggers, such as molds, weeds, grasses, trees, pet dander, and dust. These triggers are determined by where you live. Such triggers are also especially useful in diagnosing any food allergies that you may suffer from. You can get a Helix Food Allergy Panel done at Helix Pathlabs in Mohali.
Allergy blood tests can even be called immunoassay tests. Most commonly allergy blood tests include:
- Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
- Radioallergosorbent test
The ELISA test is used to measure how many allergen-specific antibodies are present in your blood. The RAST test even looks for particular allergen-related antibodies to determine what your allergy triggers. When the ELISA test was introduced, the RAST testing was not generally used. You can get a Helix Allergy Profile done at Helix Pathlabs in Mohali to get an extensive allergy profile.
Allergies could also cause an accumulation of certain kinds of white blood cells in your blood. Blood tests can even check the number of white blood cells in your blood, including the count of a kind of white cell known as an eosinophil. You can even get these done if you suffer from allergies. However, it is essential to remember that many different health conditions could cause an expansion in the number of white blood cells.
You can also get other blood tests done to measure how many chemicals can get released due to allergic reactions.
Why are allergy blood tests done?
Allergy blood testing is suggested by your doctor if you:
- may suffer from an extreme reaction during your triggers
- suffer from a history of a life-threatening reaction to allergies known as anaphylaxis
- suffer from a severe skin condition such as psoriasis, dermatitis, or eczema
- suffer from poorly controlled asthma
- suffer from an unstable heart condition
- find yourself unable to tolerate needle scratches that are needed for skin testing
- are taking a medicine that may interfere with the results of the skin test and find yourself unable to stop using this medicine for some days. Some examples can be certain antidepressants, steroids, and antihistamines.
Your doctor might also ask you to get allergy blood testing to see how well your immunotherapy or allergy treatments are working. Allergy blood testing can even show if you have managed to beat an allergy.
Pros of Allergy Blood Tests
Advantages of getting an allergy blood test can be:
- These tests could be done whenever it suits you, at any time, since they are not affected by any medications that you take.
- Allergy blood tests only need you to take just one needle stick which is preferable for people who are uncomfortable around needles, as compared to skin testing.
- Allergy blood tests are also the test of choice for very young children and infants.
Allergy Test in Mohali
Thousands of Indians struggle with allergies every day. You may sneeze and sniffle when the seasons transform or get teary-eyed and itchy when you pet an animal or dust the house. Maybe you start huffing if you eat a specific food. Don’t ignore these signs as they might be affecting your immune system. Get tested and consulted at Helix Pathlabs Mohali today.
Meet Our MD, Dr. Charandeep Singh Sahni
We take pride in the fact that we are led and driven by the innovative and humanitarian approach of our honourable managing director, Dr Charandeep Singh Sahni. Carrying several years of experience in medical services under his belt, Dr Sahni has been actively involved in organizing and conducting national and state-level conferences at TMH. He specializes in lymph node pathology, GI pathology, head and neck pathology, and breast pathology.
Medical Academic Background and Career at a Glance
- MBBS from the prestigious Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Hospital, Mumbai with distinction in Biochemistry and Pharmacology in 2000.
- MD in pathology from Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai from 2003-06.
- Worked as Senior Resident in Department of Histopathology at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Research and Papers Presented by Dr Sahni
Dr Sahni also demonstrated his professional achievements by presenting his research works at several eminent conferences. Some of his research work was published and referred by eminent medical journals.
- He presented a poster on “Aorto-Left Atrial Fistula” in APCON 2003 at Bhubaneswar.
- His paper on “Analysis of Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Study of 173 cases” in APCON 2005 at Pune was lauded by the healthcare community.
- In 2006, he demonstrated an important piece of research titled “Distribution, clinicopathological characteristics and immunophenotyping of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: A study of 313 cases using WHO classification (2000)” at APCON 2006 in Bangalore.
Key Published Works:
Dr Sahni has also been involved with many articles published by leading science and medical journals.
- Bothra R, Pai PS, Chaturvedi P, Majeed TA, Singh C, Gujral S, Kane SV. Follicular dendritic cell tumour of tonsil – is it an underdiagnosed entity? Indian J Cancer 2005; 42 (4): 211-4.
- Charandeep S Sahni, Sangeeta B. Desai. Distribution and Clinicopathological characteristics of non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma in India: A study of 935 cases using the WHO classification of lymphoid neoplasms (2000). Leukaemia and Lymphoma 2007; 48 (1): 122-133.
- Charandeep Sahni, Sangeeta Desai. Primary testicular precursor B-lymphoblastic lymphoma: A rare entity. Leukaemia and Lymphoma 2007