Total serum IgE and specific IgE antibodies in children with bronchial asthma

Correlation between total serum IgE levels and RAST scores in a total of 342 asthmatic children were evaluated. The median and range of serum IgE were 1,050 IU/mL and 20 to 10,000 IU/mL respectively. Positive rates of RAST were highest for mites and house dust (87% to 91%) and lowest for milk, dogs, buckwheat, and eggs (2% to 8%). In general, patients with higher RAST scores had higher serum IgE (P less than .05, Mann-Whitney test). In individual cases, however, serum IgE levels did not significantly correlate with RAST scores and RAST was mandatory to estimate the levels of specific IgE antibodies.