Skin and radioallergosorbent tests in patients with sensitivity to bee and wasp venom

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Abstract
Intradermal (ID) and prick tests with bee or wasp venom (Pharmalgen) were performed on 102 subjects with a history of adverse reactions to stings and 46 control subjects giving no such history. Venom was diluted 100, 10 and 1 .mu.g/ml for prick testing and 10-2, 10-2, 10-3 and 10-4 .mu.g/ml for ID injections. In 46 control subjects all were tested with the highest concentration of prick testing solution (100 .mu.g/ml); 8 (17%) had positive reactions, a similar reaction rate to that reported in control subjects using 10-1 .mu.g/ml ID. In the 102 test subjects skin tests were, therefore, regarded as positive only if the reaction was elicited by .ltoreq. 10 .mu.g/ml by prick test or .ltoreq. 10-2 .mu.g/ml by ID. In general, the results with skin prick tests and ID tests were comparable when the prick solution was 1000 times the concentration of that used for ID testing. ID tests were positive in 13 with negative skin prick, 7 of whom had detectable antibodies when tested by RAST [radioallergosorbent test]. Conversely, 4 with a positive skin prick test (2 of whom were RAST positive) were considered negative on ID testing. As judged by RAST or skin test it appeared that sensitivity diminished with the time interval from the last sting (P < 0.001).