[Allergic rhinitis--does the radioallergosorbent test improve the diagnosis? (author's transl)]

A comparison between the skin test and radioallergosorbent test RAST) in 127 patients with allergic rhinitis reveals no advantage of RAST. This contrasts with the results obtained in other allergic diseases. However, the determination of a single pollen allergen allows the in vitro diagnosis of allergic rhinitis, which, obviously, is due to cross reactivity of pollen allergens. This makes the RAST a useful procedure in routine diagnosis, especially in the case of patients living far away from an allergy centre. In these cases RAST can easily be used as a screening test.